Frozen (2010)

Even though Frozen was a low budget indie film it made me never want to ride a ski lift at night. In the movie three twenty year old friends who do not have enough money to buy lift tickets bribe the lift worker to let them go up one more time before the park closes until the next weekend. This ends up being a horrible idea and leaves them having to make difficult life or death decisions. Frozen is a suspenseful thriller that captivates the true emotions of being stranded with no hope of escape.
The lift worker allows the three friends to go up the mountain for one last run before the park closes for one hundred dollars. Half way up the mountain all of the lights go off in a chain reaction and the lift comes to an abrupt stop. At first they think that the lift is just stuck and will start moving again, but they soon realize that they are trapped and are going to slowly freeze to death. Eventually they decide that they have to try to get down and get help to survive, so one of them attempts to jump down into the snow. He crashes into the snow and breaks both of his legs. With the bones of his legs sticking out of his skin he is unable to move to get help, and he is suddenly surrounded by wolves. His friends are then forced to watch helplessly as he is torn apart and eaten alive by wolves. One of the others now decides to attempt to climb down the ski lift by holding onto the cord, which he finds out is extremely sharp, and he is unsuccessful. He ends up getting down but is then also eaten alive by wolves. The girl is now the only one left and she is lucky enough to get down and is eventually found by someone driving along the road and is brought to safety.
At the end of the movie you will feel glad that the girl survived the ordeal, but you will also feel sad that her friends did not. The director did a great job of capturing and conveying the emotions that characters are experiencing when they realize that they are stranded and helpless. He uses dialogue that will make you feel like you know the characters and the actors do a great job of expressing their emotions.The movie was actually filmed on a mountain ski lift which gives it an extremely realistic feel, you can almost feel the cold wind scraping against your face. I guarantee that you will think twice about riding a ski lift after watching this movie, I would much rather walk.

Food Inc. (2008)

"There is a deliberate veil, this curtain that's drawn between us and where our food comes from. The industry doesn't want you to know the truth about what you are eating because if you knew, you might not want to eat it." - Robert Kenner

Do you know where your food comes from? I never really thought about it until I watched Food Inc., a documentary that will change the way you look at your food forever. Food Inc. takes you into the dark and dirty industry of food production and shows you what the companies do not want you to know. Mistreated animals injected with harmful growth drugs kept locked up in small dark rooms with thousands of other animals, along with extremely dirty and dangerous processing factories where animals are slaughtered and processed at an alarmingly fast rate.
The meat production industry is controlled by only a few very large companies that are trying to keep up with the pace that fast food chains have set. In the 1970's the top four beef packers controlled 25% of the market and there were thousands of slaughter houses across America. Now the top four beef packers control over 80% of the market and there are only about 13 slaughterhouses across America. Robert Kenner, the film's producer, contacted many of  the nations largest food producers to be interviewed, but none of them allowed cameras anywhere near their facilities. These companies are only concerned with making large quantities of food at minimal cost and are extremely willing to overlook safety and health of their workers and consumers. The government often ignores the problems with the food industry in order to provide cheap food regardless of the consequences.
 The food industry has become a very big problem in the United States and most people do not even realize that it is a problem. The number of E.Coli and salmonella cases in the United States has been steadily going up. There needs to be more laws regarding the quality and safety of our food or the problem will only get worse. These few corporations controlling the market are making more money and getting stronger everyday, therefore they are gaining more control over the market and sooner or later they will be monopolies.

Boyz N Da Hood (1991)

          My view on the youth growing up in the ghetto completely changed after i watched Boyz N Da Hood when i was 12 years old. The movie shows life from the perspective of Tre, Doughboy, and Ricky  a group of young black males growing up in South Central Los Angeles. You feel like you are there with them posting up on the stoop drinking 40's as you watch them try to survive and succeed in life through the good times and the bad. It is hard to stay out of trouble while living in a neighborhood that is in a constant and unstoppable cycle of gang violence, with police that hate black people.

           Ricky was about to graduate high school and go to college with a scholarship, his goal was to get out of the ghetto with his girlfriend and son to live a better life. His future was looking great until he was unexpectedly gunned down by a gang that was seeking revenge for a scuffle that they had a few weeks earlier. His death devastated his family and left Doughboy, Tre, and the rest of the gang thirsty for revenge.
           Tre went home to grab his .357 magnum to avenge the death of his best friend when his father confronts him and tells him not to contribute to the chain of violence. Tre goes to back into his room only to hop out of his window and get into a car with Doughboy and a few other friends to hunt for Ricky's killer. While driving around the city later that night Tre realizes that what he is about to do is wrong and tells Doughboy to pull over and let him out. He gets out at a bus stop and starts to walk back home.
          Tre was the only one out of his group of friends who had a father around in his life everyday. The decisions he makes throughout the movie are all affected by the morals that his father had instilled in him as he was growing up. Tre's father put him on a positive path and showed him the difference between right and wrong. A lot of the youth in the ghetto are not fortunate enough to have a father around while they grow up, that then affects how they act when they are older.