Lord Voldemort's Figure

Robocop

With current special effects, I wonder what Robocop will look like. I was hoping Michael Fassbender would get the part. The relatively  unknown Swedish actor Joel Kinnaman will be playing the cybernetic crime fighter. With mega actors Gary Oldman and Samuel L. Jackson as a supporting cast, this upcoming 2013 release seems serious. As a child, seeing the  1987 release, I thought it would be cool to have  machines enforce the law so  biological officers would not risk their lives. Integrating machines with the human physiology elevates mortal crime  fighters into superhumans who are capable of much more than their flesh and bone colleagues. 

As amazing as this seems, robotic or cybernetic law enforcers will be operating without human sensibilities, unless they are programmed to do so. Still if a cybernetic police officer has to use force, would this yield the same emotional response as a human officer trying to use force?           

Maniac!

Insidious

This movie was so promising at first. The suspense was there. The story was there, and the acting was there. The most upsetting part about this film was being guided along with the promise of something great, in that,the grand reveal was going to be  frightening and stimulating. With so much suspense being the strength of the movie, and the antagonist, being so other worldly, the ending of the film, was obligated to a consummation, that  was suppose to bring the elements of  the film together cohesively, and it did so, but in a sophomoric fashion. The production at the end transformed a film that was so ominous in tone, into a carnival that could be described as a Charles Mason collage of  haphazard statements intended to be axiomatic, but ended up being weird explosive film-salad. 

The Talented Mr. Ripley: A Fake Somebody

"I always thought it'd be better to be a fake somebody than a real nobody ".  This is such a memorable line because it seems so insightful. For a person who is searching for an identity, the appeal of pretending, in order to feel important, and to feel accepted, by denouncing the struggle to find one's genuine interest which is probably essential in realizing one's sense of  fulfillment, is a very real option. 

But the talented Mr. Ripley's efforts to become the real person he pretended to be  ultimately collapsed in a moment of introspection, marked by an honest look at what  he really was, a liar. Wanting to be somebody else because being himself provided no satisfaction, required an incredible measure of duplicity that involved and ever growing inventory of lies. These lies, in the multitude, became too much for Ripley to manage.  Mr. Ripley was talented, and his lack of awareness as to how to use his talents in a manner that would have granted the status of significance he passionately coveted, was his undoing. 

Some seek importance by acting like those who are already considered important. The yearning for significance, and the benefits of achieving this status, is too strong of  a temptation for some to repel, but the consequence acquiescing,  may be an identity conflict, involving the pressure to be truthful against the prestige of being significant.       

The Working Class in Romantic Comedies: My Best Friend's Girl

Minus a few economic details, many of the romantic comedies that I have watched portrays the plight of the working class with a satisfactory degree of accuracy. This is not relative to those who are suffering from considerable economic loss, but to the way of life of those with average economic means in their quest for love. In My Best Friends Girl , the main male characters played by Dane Cook and Jason Biggs, live in a place that seems fitting for college students. Based on how these characters are portrayed in the movie, they do not seem to possess the economic means to own an apartment, but with an injection of reality, the possibility of them owning the apartment with a stated income loan is not so far fetched. 

Keeping in line with reality, Cook's character, Tank, works as a customer service representative/trainer at a call center. Tank's occupation, arguably, does not generate enough income for him to live without roommates, and the same applies to Jason Biggs's character. Toward the end of the film, Kate Hudson's character, Alexis, frankly tells Tank that his job is a "joke". The ending was quintessential Hollywood embellishment. 

Even with a home and a job that is far from impressive, Tank gets the girl; but in reality would there be economic factors that would greatly affect a man's likelihood of getting the girl? In romantic comedies the characters are not customarily affected by outsourcing, but in the real world people's capacity to experience love and romance, among other things, are greatly affected by the availability of jobs to pay for dates. 

Suppose Tank's call center job was outsourced to the Philippines, would this have affected Tank's chances of winning Alexis, who is after all, a career woman? Marked by one partner constantly sponsoring another partner, is a strain on relationships resulting from economic restraints, and in this case, Alexis would have been the sponsor, who is constantly paying for everything because Tank's job was outsourced.