Tag: Movie

  • Movies of the Decade

    The year has finally come to an end, also bringing the decade to an end. Within these 10 years, there have been many films which have most certainly left quite an impression on us. Here is a list of 10 films which have made it to the top throughout the past ten years.

    • 2010 Despicable Me
    • 2011 Captain America: The First Avenger
    • 2012 The Hunger Games
    • 2013 Frozen
    • 2014 Guardians of the Galaxy
    • 2015 Jurassic World
    • 2016 Moana
    • 2017 Star Wars: The Last Jedi
    • 2018 Avengers: Infinity War
    • 2019 Avengers: Endgame

  • PAAL Students Under the STARS

    On October 26, PAAL had its second annual “Monsters Under the Stars” horror movie night. It took place on the PAAL campus, which is located on Long Beach Boulevard and 16th Street. The hosts of the event had mixed feelings concerning the overall turnout.

    “The night was successful,” said Marisol Ibanez, the Activities Director and a teacher from PAAL.

    “Roughly 75 students attended. That’s approximately 25% of the campus, which is really impressive. However, we only had about two students from the Poly campus show up, which is really disappointing, because we expected a larger Poly audience. ”

    The campus was lit up with orange and purple lights, and the movie was projected on an inflatable screen.

    “The design of the campus quad is like an outdoor amphitheatre, which creates these natural steps for people to sit and chill with blankets and pillows,” Ibanez said.

    PAAL students chose to screen 1408, which is about a father who loses his daughter and becomes a paranormal investigator who stays at a haunted hotel where no one can leave. Before the sun went down, scary short films were played before 1408  started rolling its tape.

    In comparison, “PSC is basically the ASB at PAAL,” Ibanez said.

    “PAAL has no formal representation on the Poly ASB. That’s why we are working together to support one another. Mr. Puth came to show his support for the event, and it was greatly appreciated. It takes a lot of resources to host an event, and we need Poly’s support to transition our events from events that foster a positive campus community and experience to events that generate income.”

  • Once Upon A Hallmark Christmas

    Once Upon A Hallmark Christmas

    Fate is real. The rich are evil. New York City is the only large city in existence. There is no excuse to hate the holidays. It is wrong to want a good career. Living in a small town is the only way to be happy. Research shows that 50% of the time, engaged women are more likely to meet their true soulmates because their fiancés were actually jerks anyway. Christmas is not about presents, it is about showing your love of family and friends. If a woman is fired from her job or does not get the promotion she wanted, then she will most likely be married within six months. In order to be a complex character, a close relative to you must have died. Congratulations! You just made it through every Hallmark Christmas movie plot in existence!

    I admit that I do like some of these movies (watch Once Upon a Holiday), but I also have to say that most of them make me want to vomit because of the culmination of bad writing, predictable plotlines, and sickeningly sweet dialogue. While researching for this article, I watched ten Hallmark Channel original movies. I also smashed the television with a baseball bat, or at least I wanted to.

    I understand that nobody expects these movies to be nominated for Oscars and that any romantic movie will always have a certain level of cliché in it, but I also know Hallmark can do better. They can create characters that are complex because of their thoughts and interests, not because of the death of a family member or a bad breakup 15 years ago. Also, since none of the movies set in New York have anything to do with the actual city–no ice skating at Rockefeller Center or long walks through Central Park–they could change it up and make a movie set in Cleveland or tell the story of two college kids falling in love at Purdue University. Perhaps Hallmark could make the male lead the one who is desperate to find a partner. The writers can come up with pivotal dramatic scenes that are not caused by a misunderstanding.

    Luckily, it seems like the 2015 movies are not as sexist as the older movies. The plotlines of the old movies usually go like this: a thirty year old woman living in NYC is dumped by her jerk boyfriend, is passed up for promotion by a different jerk guy, gets stranded in a small town, falls in love with a kind man from said small town, realizes that she shouldn’t have a career or live in a big city, and then the two leads kiss and the movie ends with no real answer as to where they are going to live. The 2015 movies I watched were basically the same except the couple moved to where the girl was promoted and ended with a wedding montage. Hopefully this means progress, but I sincerely doubt it.