The Secret (2006)

The Secret is a documentary that supposedly reveals a secret that was once used by the majority of society but recently has been hidden from society. They claim that all of the great men in history including Einstein, Shakespeare, and Beethoven used the secret to achieve their success. This secret seems unbelievable and impossible but the philosophers in the movie say that you must move past that thought process for this power to work. I am still skeptical that this secret works but I am going to give it a try, what have I got to lose?

The main theory to the secret is the Law of Attraction. Every thought and emotion you feel in your head gives off a wave of energy, it has been medically proven that positive thoughts have much more energy than negative thoughts. The universe reacts to the energy released from your brain. Positive feelings attract positive things into your life while negative feelings attract the negative into your life. So if you learn to control your emotions and have positive feelings you will live a happier life. This makes sense on  the level that if you are always thinking and feeling positive you are already happy, but the authors and philosophers in this film say that it goes much deeper than that claiming that everything that is brought into your life is brought there by what you are thinking and feeling on a conscious and unconscious level. Even if you do not believe in the Law of Attraction it is at work every second of your life is what they all said.

It is hard to believe that any of this is true but no one truly knows if it is or isn't. One of the only facts backing up this theory that stood out to me in this film was that when someone gets out of bed and immediately stubs their toe they tend to spiral downhill and their whole day becomes a series of unfortunate events. This starts the day with  negative thoughts and feelings that tend to last throughout the day which keeps the negativity flowing into your life. "All power is from within and is therefore under our control." -Robert Collier

The creators of this film then go even further by claiming that you can use this power to get whatever it is that you want no matter how big or small. "When you visualize then you materialize" - Dr.Dennis Wattley. Decide what you want, believe you can have it, believe you deserve it, and believe it's possible for you. Then close your eyes and visualize having what you want while feeling the feelings of already having it and come out and focus on what you are grateful for, and then when you have inspired thought you have to trust it and act on it. This supposedly works because the brain cannot tell the difference between something really happening or if it is just being imagined. "Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life's coming attractions." -Albert Einstein. This process has to be repeatedly daily over an unknown period of time for the secret to work. It seems like a ridiculous concept, but is it actually possible?

There were many people who got interviewed in this documentary claiming that the secret helped them achieve and receive everything that they ever wanted but none of them provided solid proof of this secret being the actually cause of their luck. It makes this harder to believe but if you think about it what proof could their be except for experiencing it for yourself.

This movie opened up my mind to the possibilities of the universe, our race still has very little understanding of how the universe truly works. It also gave me some good tips on how to think and feel positively which will help anyone in life even if this secret is not real.

"Whether you think you can or you can't either way you are right." -Henry Ford
"Follow your bliss and the universe will open up doors for you where there were only walls." -Joseph Campbell

Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011)

Apes taking over the world may seem like it could never happen but anything is possible. While trying to find a cure for Alzheimer's disease doctors test a new medication on chimpanzees and the result was very unexpected. These chimp's brains developed extremely fast to the point where they were smarter than a normal human being and they even developed human-like emotions. These test chimps were treated like dirt and kept locked up to the point where they grew to despise the human race and wanted revenge.
The main chimp Caesar was the smartest out of all of the chimps and was eventually pushed over the top and he screamed "No" in an extremely intimidating voice, the first chimpanzee to express himself through language. He broke free and freed the rest of the test chimpanzees into the world. They went out into the world still not even wanting to cause trouble they just wanted to get to the Redwood National park so they could finally be free. But of course the humans wanted to stop them by killing them and in a huge battle on the Golden Gate Bridge the chimpanzees outsmart the humans and get past them.
This movie shows the dangers of testing drugs on animals, especially ones that affect the brain. You never know how the drug is going to affect the animal, if it will make them aggressive or passive or even stronger and more dangerous. If an animal that has been injected with drugs for testing somehow gets out into the environment there is no telling how it will effect the ecosystem. It could mate and create mutated offspring that could be a threat to other living organisms including humans.

Forrest Gump (1994)

Forrest Gump is a fantastic film that mixes entertainment with education about the 1960's and all of the social problems and movements during the era. If you want to get a sense of what the political air was like in the 60's this movie is great way to see. Forrest Gump may not have been the sharpest tool in the shed but he had a heart made of gold and just went with the flow of the universe. " Life is like a box of chocolates...you never know what you're gunna get" -Forrest Gump. Forrest spends his life trying to fulfill his destiny and fighting to win the love of Jenny, his childhood best friend.
Forrest Gump was present at almost every major event that occured through the 1960's and he even met with the president on several different occasions. He joined the army and fought in the Vietnam War where he saved the lives of almost his whole platoon before he was shot in the buttocks and discharged. He was awarded the Medal of Honor for his bravery in the war and while spending time in a militarily hospital he discovers that he has a natural talent for ping-pong. He starts a ping-pong craze and was invited to play for the All-American ping pong team to play against China. Along with starting a ping-pong craze Forrest inspires people to jog with him after he seen jogging across the United States, he jogged for 3 years, 2 months, 14 days and 16 hours. Anyone can do anything that they put their mind to.
This movie shows that you do not have to be intelligent to live a fulfilling life, Forrest experienced many events that people would have loved to be a part of even though he was known as the town idiot. All that is necessary to live a fulfilling life is an open mind. While Forrest was taking part in all of these historical events all he was really thinking about was Jenny. This movie is very inspirational and even educational as these events were based on historical fact and some parts of the movie even took actual footage of these events and digitally added Forrest into them.

Good Will Hunting (1997)

Good Will Hunting is one of the best movies that I have ever seen.This film takes place in South Boston which is close to home and I felt like I could relate to the main character Will Hunting on many different levels. Will is an orphan who was abused throughout his childhood, he blamed himself for everything that went wrong in his life which causes him to destroy his own life. Will ruins his professional opportunities and runs away from emotional connection and commitment with other people, he is afraid that if he lets them in they are going to hurt him just as his foster family did. On the outside Will was naturally brilliant and great at talking his way out of the various situations he found himself in, he used these traits to cover up how he was truly feeling on the inside. Will had many psychological problems that were greatly affecting his life that he did not even understand and Will did such a great job of hiding these feelings that most people were not able to tell that Will was a very troubled man on the inside.

Will met with plenty of different psychologists and therapists for his problems but he always just messed with their heads and made them walk out on him saying that working with this kid is a waste of my time. But after the sixth or seventh psychologist Will met with the man that would forever change his life, Sean Maguire. This psychologist grew up in Southie just as Will had so he could relate to Will on a level that the other psychologists could not. Finding a way to relate to a person is the best way to make them feel comfortable enough to open up their true feelings which is exactly what Sean had to do to cure Will of his negative thoughts.

After successfully getting Will to open up about his past him and Sean become great friends. They help each other move on and get the most out of their lives. Sean helped Will get on the right path in his life and Will helped Sean move on from the death of his wife. In the end Will moves on with his life heading towards California to see about a girl, Will finally had the courage to take a chance and move on to better his life.

Requiem for a Dream (2000)

        I have never looked at life the same since I first watched Requiem for a Dream. It is the story of four different humans on the pursuit of happiness all intricately linked together throughout the movie. All four of these characters fall into drug addiction and completely lose control of their lives before they even realize what has happened to them. You see them rise up to the top then fall straight back down to come crashing into thick concrete. Watching this movie gave me a better understanding of what it means to be addicted to drugs.
        You see the perspective of people addicted to street drugs and over the counter medication, both of which have very similar consequences. You can become addicted to almost any drug and this gives you a good idea of how depressing and controlling drug addiction can be. Drugs can make life seem better than it really is but only for a short period of time, you will eventually realize that none of which you perceived was real. Trying too hard to be happy can be very bad especially when you do so with drugs, one character was so caught up in trying to be happy she completely lost control of here mind and for a second thought she was happy until she was in the emergency room receiving a lobotomy.
        This movie is extremely graphic and combines a fantastic soundtrack with insane video effects to make your brain spin. The ending is particularly trippy you are flashing between the characters hitting rock bottom, one is receiving a lobotomy, one is getting his arm amputated, one is being beaten in jail, and the other is getting gang banged in front of a group of old men for drug money. Every time I hear the theme song from this movie I have flash backs of some of the horrible things that the characters went through in this film.
        This movie is definitely worth watching, it can teach a person a lot more than they think. I had no idea what I was getting into when I first watched this film and I will never forget that day.

Human Centipede II (Full Sequence) 2011

        Human Centipede II is an insanely disturbing film, it makes the first Human Centipede look like a children's movie. It is not a sequel to the first film, it is directed to be a non-fiction account of a Human Centipede superfan after the fictional movie is released. It is a crazy concept that most people will never see because the idea of ten people being physically attached to each other is way too vile. Tom Six said that he held himself back while making the first Human Centipede and that he was going to go a little harder in the second and he was not lying, I can not even imagine what the Third Human Centipede will be like.
        The main character is a psychopath who does not speak one word throughout the entire movie, a fantastic acting job. Working security at a parking garage in the UK he repeatedly watched the Human Centipede on his laptop every single day, he even had a scrapbook and a pet centipede; he was extremely aroused by centipedes. This is the contributing factor to him kidnapping over twelve people and taking them to an abandon warehouse to begin his construction of what he perceives as God.
        The whole movie is filmed in black and white except a few select parts where color is added. I did not like the fact that it was in black and white at first but I soon realized that it adds so much to the feeling of the film. Having the film in black and white makes the parts where color is added much more intense. Tom Six did not even go all out in creating this movie and it is still utterly insane, this man must have had a terrible childhood.
        Human Centipede II has some of the best acting and directing skills that I have ever seen and it will probably never get the appreciation that it deserves. It is hard to play a part in a movie in which you are physically attached to another human, and the main character will truly convince you that he is insane. I understand that most people do not want to see such a horrible crime committed against humanity in a movie, but once you look past how disgusting the film is you can see the masterpiece that Human Centipede is. The ending of the movie will completely blow your mind, I did not expect it all, but if you want to know what happens you are going to have to watch the film for yourself. Good luck.

The main character in Human Centipede II.

Rain Man (1988)

         I did not know what a savant was before I watched Rain Man. I had seen videos of people reciting the days of the week on different dates from the past and future but i just thought they had practiced a lot. Savants have remarkable mental abilities but these abilities come with many disabilities.
         Raymond was living in a mental hospital the majority of his life and his brother did not even know he existed. Charlie kidnaps Raymond from the hospital because he had just inherited a large sum of money from their father and Charlie felt entitled to some of it. But as they traveled across the country together Charlie begins to enjoy having Raymond around, he had been missing out on having a brother his whole life.
         The hospital wanted to take Raymond back, they felt that Charlie was incapable of taking care of Raymond. The doctor said that Raymond did not fully understand what was going on and that he was incapable of making decisions for himself. I felt that Raymond definitely understood want was happening he just had a hard time expressing himself. Raymond had experienced more in the short period of time he was with Charlie than his whole life at the hospital, he definitely would have chosen to stay with him. He is not going to get better staying in a hospital separated from society for the rest of his life.
        Charlie was devastated when they took Raymond back to the mental hospital, he truly enjoyed spending time with him. Taking care of somebody with mental disabilities is definitely a challenge but it is not impossible. No one should be restricted and forced to live in spot for their whole life, they deserve to see the world and live as normal of a life as possible. Raymond was deemed unfit to live a normal life on his own but he had a close relative that wanted to take care of him and they would not let him leave.