Scott's Thoughts

Movies

2009-05-07T00:12:00.000-07:00

Top five favorite American movies (so far):
1. Forest Gump
2.Training Day
3. The Count of Monte Cristo
4.Gran Torino
5.The Visitor

Top five foreign movies (so far):
1. Pan's Labyrinth
2. Amal
3. Not one less
4. The Bicycle Thief
5. The Band's Visit

Top three documentaries:
1. Sicko
2. Promises
3.Bowling for Columbine

This are subject to change but I would strongly suggest to anybody who enjoys foreign movies to see the ones I listed if you have not so already.

My plan in life

2009-01-26T10:53:00.001-08:00

I think I just want to be a loser. That way even when I fall I will be so low anyways that it wont even hurt. That problem with aiming high is that you are always worrying about whether or not you are doing as well as you want. But if I am just a loser then I won't have to worry about that and I'll be comfortable in my loser world.

One of my favs

2009-01-11T19:58:00.000-08:00

Without a doubt one of my celebrity hero's has to be Jerry Seinfeld. He embodies a true comic, who always focused on the comedy and never sold out to anything else. During the beginning stages of his sitcom NBC told him of several changes that they wanted him to make so that Seinfeld would have some more cliche aspects that were found it many sitcoms in that time. Now, these were some of the top executives at NBC so you can imagine that anybody else would have readily agreed with them and then made the adjustments that they had suggested. However, Seinfeld just told them no and then followed by saying that if they did not like that then he would be fine going back to being a stand up comedian. I admire Jerry Seinfeld for standing up to these head honchos and telling them that keeping with his comedy principles was more important then anything else.

Standing up for good

2008-11-04T13:26:00.000-08:00

Well, I just watched one of my favorite movies, Training Day. The movie is about a guy named Jake played by Ethan Hawk who wants to work on the LAPD Narcotics Unit. He is trained by a charasmatic and rather convincing personality named Alonzo played by one of the best actors out there, Denzel Washington. The whole movie takes place over a period of just one day, and as the day goes on it is obvious that Alonzo does not abide by the rules and is just plain corrupt. Jake speaks up for what he knows is right but each time Alonzo comes back with a convincing agrument as to why a little corruption here and there is neccessary in the world of a narcotics officer.
I was able to learn many lessons from this movie. What I most learned was that it is important to stick up for what you know is right. There was a time on my LDS mission where I had a leader over me whom everybody that was just the coolest. This guy was extremely chrasmatic and I even remember wishing that I was somebody like him. As time went on I saw him do many things that a LDS missionary should not do, but because of way his presented himself I thought that his behavior was accpetable. Besides at the same time even if I did seem him do something that I never had the guts to stand up to him, I mean this guy was just to cool. Later on this missionary left and our mission president get it in all of our minds that this missionaries behavior was not acceptable. When I heard my mission president say this it made so much sense and I felt crazy for ever thinking that what this guy was doing was ok. But because of this missionaries charasmatic and convicing behavior I cut him a lot of slack even though I knew deep down inside that he was not behaving appropiately.
This is why I admire Jake in this movie because even though Alonzo tries to convince him that a litte corruption here and there is not so bad he has the guts to stand up for what he belives in.