Happy Chinese New Year! (featuring Ong Bak 3)

Today I’ll tell you all about Ong Bak 3.

I celebrated Chinese New Year last weekend with my friends, happy Year of the Rabbit to everyone. Amongst the Asian-styled snacks provided by our amazing host Chui Choy, we also had bubble tea and rented Ong Bak 3 from Irben Entertainment, a place on Pembina that has all kinds of Asian (subtitled) movies way before they get released for the rest of Canadians. Don’t worry nerds, yes there’s tons of anime. Calm down.

Anyways, for those that don’t know, the Ong Bak movies (plus The Protector) are straight outta Thailand, and are known largely for the participation of Muay Thai superstar Tony Jaa. Jaa is nothing short of mind-blowing onscreen; the movie highlights how there are no strings or special effects used to achieve his fighting prowess. So when the third movie came out, trust me, I was amped for some flying elbows and backflip kicks.

Unfortunately, there was barely any to be had. Part of the reason that made Ong Bak so great was that the usual reasons that scare people away from foreign movies (subtitled dialogue, a crazy plot that’s hard to follow, people speaking German) were nonexistent. In the first movie, the plot was beyond basic, the dialogue was take it or leave it, and 95% of the movie was Jaa absolutely working people. But as the trilogy has progressed, the ratio of gasp-evoking moves to insane flashbacks slipped it out of the action movie genre and into… foreign films.

The movie is a lot of scenes that don’t seem to fit, spells and tattoos that give off smoke for some reason, and the worst part is Jaa’s character is on crutches for the movie’s majority! Despite a couple short fights that bookend the movie and a few laughs from director Petchtai Wongkamlao in his reassumed role as the village’s local crazy old guy, it’s mostly a slow healing journey of Jaa learning meditation.

So if you’re expecting some fighting, watch Ong Bak and The Protector, and just leave it there. Oh and if you’re short on time, here’s some highlights from both movies- they’ll blow you away. It’s my Chinese New Year gift to you, so imagine you’re taking it out of a red envelope. 

News Feed: Andrew Parker is writing about Facebook.

Today I commented on The Social Network.

The Social Network tells some of the stories about Mark Zuckerberg and his creation of Facebook. Today Facebook has over 500 million users, with people spending over 700 billion minutes per month on the site; feats that have made Zuckerberg the world’s youngest billionaire. But, as the movie tagline says, he didn’t accomplish all of this without making a few enemies.



The Social Network's poster

In an interview on The Colbert Report, Aaron Sorkin, the film’s writer, says that the film is fact, but he included 3 different versions of the story in the movie. As Facebook’s beginnings led quickly to court cases and legal action between the creators, there is debate over which version that came out of the litigation is correct. Sorkin also said in that interview,“We don’t know what the answer is. It’s also more fun because the audience gets to decide who’s right, who’s wrong, who’s good, who’s bad- we just want to start fights in the parking lot.” (watch The Colbert Report episode here)

Aaron Sorkin

But in any of these stories, it’s almost impossible not to notice that as Stephen Colbert put it, Sorkin portrays Zuckerberg as “something of a genius-jerk.” Zuckerberg’s motives and ethics in leading on his partners in a strikingly similar idea for a project are called into question during the court hearings, as evidence is presented that Zuckerberg dodged contact with them and even misled them while simultaneously developing his own take on a social networking site. Even though, as the Zuckerberg character says in the movie, he made it better than them, I still couldn’t help feeling like that original idea was stolen from his partners. But what made me think poorly of Zuckerberg the most was how he treated his former best friend and CFO, Eduardo Saverin. Zuckerberg is not portrayed as having many friends in college, yet he turns his back on the guy who believed in him and supported him from the beginning. Without the cash Saverin put up to fund the project, Facebook would never have happened. Beyond accusations of intellectual property theft, I was disgusted more by the idea that Zuckerberg, while pulling in more money than he knew what to do with, couldn’t repay his best friend for all he had done.

Although as I left the theater I felt guilty for supporting Facebook, I don’t think this movie will hurt Facebook’s popularity. Current users are too far immersed in their online social activities to delete their account based on events that happened 10 years ago, and I’m sure many people will be impressed by Zuckerberg as a young entrepreneur and check out his work. However, I think that most people who are not already on Facebook will now be even less likely to join, using this tale of questionable origins as another reason against supporting such a company and its founder.

Zuckerberg’s actions in response to the film have also been called in question. Although he has dismissed the movie in a few ways, by saying that it’s a fun, overly-dramatic look at years that were just hard work, and saying that the movie’s audience is too numerically insignificant in comparison to Facebook’s fan base to have any impact. (Taken from PR Post- Zuckerberg, Hearst and Hollywood: PR Lessons Learned From the Past, by Tiffany Gallicano.) I find this believable, but Zuckerberg also happened to donate $100 million in Facebook shares to the Newark school system on the movie’s release date, a timing he claims to be coincidental. This, as Gallicano goes on to say, is unbelievable. True or not, Zuckerberg’s “philanthropy” on the very day that this story comes out makes him look like he’s only trying to protect his reputation.

If the movie was as fun and insignificant as he said, Zuckerberg’s actions were unnecessary, and only make me think that there must be some truth to the movie’s inferences. It seems like a cover-up, and to me, only casts more shadow on Zuckerberg’s dealings. As Gallicano quotes, to say that the timing of this donation was coincidental only insults Zuckerberg’s audience, and I’m sure many will be skeptical.

Mark Zuckerberg on Oprah, where he made his donation annoucement

Give money to charity, great; support school systems. I think it’s absolutely expected of people as rich as Zuckerberg to be giving back, but don’t wait until you look bad to do it! Had Zuckerberg already setup a charity and been donating regularly, it would have been a lot easier for him to simply point to his ongoing positive actions, and they would be viewed as genuine philanthropy, not self-serving penance.

"We Didn't Cross the Border, the Border Crossed Us!"

Today I watched Machete.

     Are you like me? Do you need your political commentary to be carefully hidden in a pile of gratuitous violence and hot women? Then you’ll love Machete.

     Surrounded by an A-list cast, Danny Trejo (click links for pictures) as the title character thousand-yard-stares his way around Texas, killing anyone who gets in his way. Seriously, I mean anyone. Like… you look at him wrong and he'll use your intestine like Bruce Willis used that fire-hose in Die Hard. 

     Back to that A-list cast, did you know Lindsay Lohan was still acting? Not only did they nail a perfect role for her, but also cast Steven Seagal as a villain pretending to be Mexican. Robert De Niro, Jessica Alba, Michelle Rodriguez, Cheech Marin, they’re all here.

     Now I’ll admit, maybe the plot goes a little too far when Machete leads an army of migrant farm workers, dishwashers, and sexy nurses in lowriders that bounce up and down in a violent battle to kill border vigilantes, protest strict border laws, and try to change a Senator’s platform of anti-immigration. It becomes a thinly veiled complaint against America’s fear of illegal Mexican aliens, sure, but it makes for some sweet action.

     Also, did you know that giant sword-wielding killers get girls? Seriously guys… the ladies love it.

Try this Experiment!

Today I watched The Experiment.

      Anyone who’s taken a psychology class should remember the Stanford Prison Experiment by Philip Zimbardo, and if you’re like me you found it pretty interesting.

The study looked at the extent to which our roles dictate our behaviour by putting regular men into a mock prison, randomly assigned as either prisoners or guards. The guards were instructed to maintain order as they saw fit; asserting their authority, doling out punishments, and even harassing or humiliating the prisoners. All of this was done to ensure both the continuation of the experiment, and their reimbursement for participation. Although the prison was fake, the men were all equal outside of the experiment, and anyone was free to discontinue at any time, events quickly turned ugly. With behaviour and negative effects on the participants spiraling out of control, the intended two-week experiment was terminated after just six days.

       If that wasn’t interesting enough, The Experiment brings things to a whole new level. Director Paul Scheuring (creator, writer, and producer of Prison Break) presents a take on this experiment that is both gritty and compelling. Not only does the film ignite this textbook information with emotion, Scheuring does an incredible job of staying true to the real story. Besides the fact that the movie’s experiment runs to completion at the full two weeks, the story closely follows the actual events and is rich with accurate details, for example: prisoners being stripped and deloused upon entry, pushups given as punishments, guards spraying the prisoners with fire extinguishers, and one outspoken prisoner fighting to maintain his independence.

       Said prisoner is Travis, played by Adrien Brody (The Jacket, The Village, Predators), a young man who starts as a peaceful activist but soon turns into a hardened animal that refuses to break within the prison walls. Travis stands up to the guards and protects others, which only makes him a target for the guards’ mistreatment. Brody is excellent; watching him test his limits provides a gripping performance, as he quickly becomes the besieged hero. The breakdown exhibited in the actual participants of Zimbardo’s experiment is clear and saddening in this film; depicted by the inmates, the mental and physical toll on them is obvious and devastating.

       Playing opposite Brody is Forrest Whitaker (Street Kings, Vantage Point, The Last King of Scotland) as Barris, a man appointed to a guard position who quickly moves up as leader of a sadistic, violent group of guards. Although Barris and Travis are friendly to each other prior to the experiment, prison quickly turns them against each other. Viewers will quickly be disgusted at Whitaker’s performance; his creepy portrayal of a man slipping into insanity, drunk with too much power, makes him the perfect villain.

       While studying the original experiment in school, I wondered how ordinary people could let this madness extend to such lengths. Here The Experiment provides keen insight, as it’s easy to see events and people progress from innocent participation to brutal, animalistic behaviour. Although guards start out simply trying to continue the experiment in order to get paid, step by step their actions get sicker the more desperate for control they become.

       Of course, as with all movies, The Experiment differs from the original subject material in some ways. One guard for example, deprived of women within the prison, drifts towards pansexuality, beating and humiliating one prisoner in an attempted rape. While this no doubt adds to the drama and inspires more hatred for the guards, there is no evidence of such behaviour in the original experiment.

       Overall, The Experiment provides a view of a classic study that’s both insightful and visceral to watch. It supplements the psychology with emotion, making this experiment a personal experience. You should try this Experiment.

For more information on the Stanford Prison Experiment, check out its website at 

http://www.prisonexp.org/

Watch The Experiment’s trailer here: