The Giver Movie Review by Ryan A. Loera

Stars:
Brenton Thwaites - Jonas
Jeff Bridges - The Giver
Meryl Streep - Chief Elder
Katie Holmes - Jonas's mother
Odeya Rush - Fiona
Alexander Skarsgard - Jonas's father
Cameron Monaghan - Asher

Director: Phillip Noyce
Release Date: August 15, 2014
Genre: Action / Fantasy / Drama
Rated PG-13

The Giver could be likened to movies like The Hunger Games and Divergent but that would be an over simplification.

Jonas (Brenton Thwaites) appears to be an ordinary teenager living in a somewhat dystopian community set sometime in the distant future. His friends, Fiona (Odeya Rush) and Asher (Cameron Monaghan), look just as ordinary as him.

In fact, everyone in his community looks pretty ordinary. They all dress in the same drab clothing and are completely devoid of all emotion. By which I mean they were all genetically engineered and modified to the point of no longer being able to feel any discernible emotions.

The sole purpose for doing this is to ensure the propagation of a completely gullible and non-rebellious race of people. Oh and in addition to not feeling emotions they also cannot see colors. They only see in black and white, even though they have no concept of black and white.

Then the day comes for Jonas and his friends to graduate and be assigned their lifetime careers. Asher is assigned the position of pilot, Fiona is assigned the position of nurturer and Jonas is assigned the position of Receiver. As in receiver of memories. The collective memories of all mankind throughout all of history.

Luckily, Jonas is trained to receive these ancient memories by the current Receiver (Jeff Bridges) who can now go by the title The Giver.

The Giver shares many wonderful memories with Jonas but he also shares some very hateful and violent memories with him. Jonas finds it hard to stomach them all but he is still grateful for being shown a forgotten yet important aspect of being human.

The more memories he receives the more he evolves into a distinct individual. Of course, this is considered to be very wrong by the elders of the community. The Chief Elder (Meryl Streep) eventually notices Jonas becoming individualistic but the only thing she can do to try to get him to stop is threaten his friends and family with uncertainty.

This movie has a great story, great performances by each actor, great special effects and great cinematography.

On a scale of 1 tamale to 10 tamales I give The Giver 8 tamales!

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The Men Who Stare at Goats Movie Review by Ryan A. Loera

Stars:
George Clooney - Lyn Cassady
Ewan McGregor - Bob Wilton
Jeff Bridges - Bill Django
Kevin Spacey - Larry Hooper

Director: Grant Heslov
Release Date: November 6, 2009
Adapted from book: The Men Who Stare at Goats
Genre: Comedy/Film adaptation
Rated R

The Men Who Stare at Goats is a seriously underrated movie!

Bob Wilton (Ewan McGregor) is a journalist for a small town newspaper who inadvertently stumbles upon the history of an elite group of psychic soldiers. It begins when he interviews a man who claims to be one of those soldiers. He tells Bob that they were trained to stop the hearts of goats using nothing but their minds.

Of course, Bob doesn't believe him right away but he can tell there's definitely some kind of truth to his story.

Soon after, a coworker of Bob's dies from a heart attack and his wife leaves him for another coworker. A one armed coworker.

Bob then tries to think of a way to win her back. That’s when George W. Bush decides to invade Iraq and Bob decides to enlist as a war correspondent.

Once in Iraq, Bob sees very little action. Then he meets Lyn Cassady (George Clooney) on the patio of the hotel. Lyn claims to be the owner of a waste management company looking to get a military contract.

But Bob quickly remembers that Lyn was named as another psychic soldier by that first guy he interviewed. Bob tells Lyn he knows who he really is and Lyn immediately runs away.

Bob catches up to him near the kitchen area of the hotel. Lyn asks him if he was sent by anyone. Bob says no and tells him he's just a small town journalist looking for a good story. Lyn believes him and invites him up to his room to tell him everything he knows about the psychic soldier program.

He says it was started by a Vietnam veteran named Bill Django (Jeff Bridges) who had a very spiritually enlightening vision after almost dying from a gunshot wound. Bill was then motivated to seek out alternatives to war and senseless violence. He participated in many different spiritual movements until he finally allowed himself to become more of a compassionate and joyful being.

Bill then got approval from the army to start recruiting and training psychic soldiers for what he called the New Earth Army. They practiced things like yoga, meditation, dance and remote viewing.

Unfortunately, like all good things, it came to an end when new recruit Larry Hooper (Kevin Spacey) quickly grew jealous of the close bond that Lyn had developed with Bill. So, he deliberately sabotaged and discredited Bill Django's training methods. Thus, having Bill removed as head of the New Earth Army and forever flung into obscurity.

What makes this movie even more intriguing is that it's based on a true story. All the names have been changed and some of the details altered but at one point there definitely was a top secret elite group of psychic soldiers carrying out all kinds of covert work for the military.

For all I know they could still exist but it's probably best that we don't know too much about them.

I recommend watching this movie with an open mind and a broad sense of humor.

On a scale of 1 tamale to 10 tamales I give The Men Who Stare at Goats a delicious 8 tamales!

Don't forget to follow me on Twitter! My twitter handle is @buddhkist

:-)