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.