News Taffy

Greetings! Hope this week hasn’t worked you all too hard because it’s kind of worked me. I’m graduating soon and there are all these things to think about concerning the future and then there’s everything going on right now with school and it’s all driving me pretty crazy. But you know what’s really driving me crazy, all these movies that are coming out with no lasting effect. One of the things I love about the movies is that attachment you get to characters. You know that feeling you get when you start to think that you are a part of the lives of the people in the movie. Forrest Gump did that for me (it’s my favorite movie in case you didn’t know), so did Shawshank Redemption, The Help, The Way We Were and even Bridesmaids. I want to see more movies that make you think, cry, scream, laugh til it hurts or whatever, so I guess I’m going to keep going to the movies until I find one because I know there’s more good movies out there. With that said I guess you can assume how I must feel about this week’s movie:  A Thousand Words.

In this comedy-drama film, Eddie Murphy plays Jack McCall, a fast-talking book agent who will say anything to get what he wants. In addition to his questionable work habits, such as only reading the first five and the last five pages of a book and treating his assistant like a lap dog, he is also neglecting his relationship with his wife (Kerry Washington) and his young son. His only soft spot seems to be for his mother (played by Rudy Dee) who happens to have Alzheimer’s and calls him by his father’s name.

Using his “I can talk anybody into doing anything” tactics, he tries to convince spiritual guru Dr. Sinja (Cliff Curtis) to let him be his agent. While visiting Dr. Sinja, Jack gets a splinter from a Bodhi tree, which unbeknownst to him will bring about a world of trouble. Soon a Bodhi tree pops up in Jack’s backyard and he discovers that every time he says a word a leaf will fall off and when all the leaves fall off he will die. The tree even counts writing notes or making certain gestures with your middle finger as words. The challenge for Jack becomes saying no words at all or as little words as possible. This proves to be very difficult since he is in the middle of a book deal and is having issues with his wife. Soon things start to fall apart and as more leaves fall off the tree, Jack realizes that his words and actions affect people more than he thought.

So does Eddie Murphy die at the end of this movie? Does he figure out that he must change his ways or lose everything he loves? Is it both? I’ll never tell.

I didn’t really expect for this movie to somehow change my life or inspire me, but I did expect Eddie Murphy to deliver is classic funnyman charm. The movie only halfway gave me what I wanted. There was some of that Eddie Murphy humor that he dazzled us with in movies like Dr. Dolittle and The Nutty Professor, but not enough. I laughed, but I didn’t fall out of my seat, which is what everyone wants when they see a comedy, right? I think my friend Rachel said it was “cute” and I would have to agree. With a description like cute for this type of movie, I have no choice but to give it a six. I didn’t totally suck and it didn’t WOW be either. I just wanna be WOWED! No more mediocre movies!

This weekend I’m going to see 21 Jump Street with Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill. I’m hoping it will be one of the laugh 'til it hurts kind, but we’ll see.

Until next time,
-Raven