Brain Spill Movie Review #9

We Bought A Zoo

Setting

The story mainly takes place in a city and in the zoo some ways outside of said city. This movie takes place in the present day.

Summary

Benjamin Mee, the father of two children and who's wife recently died, decides to move from his old house. The house he thinks is perfect turns out to be a zoo. Benjamin and his two children, Dylan and Rosie, come to the rundown zoo, hoping to repair it. With the help of the small zoo staff and his children, Benjamin Mee works to fix the zoo and find a way to pay for it before the zoo's opening day. In the process, Benjamin learns more about himself, his kids, and learns to move on from his wife.

Characters

Benjamin Mee

Benjamin is the main character of the story. He is the father who decides to buy the zoo. Throughout the story, he struggles with his relationship with his son. Mee also struggles to make ends meet while trying to fix up the zoo. His feeling are really made clear by all the emotional highs and lows Benjamin has.

Kelly Foster

Kelly Foster is the lead zookeeper. She is also one of the most devoted to getting the zoo back into its previous glory. She is the staff member who trusts that Benjamin will make it through the most. She also serves as a love interest for Benjamin.

Dylan Mee

Dylan is the oldest child of Benjamin. He is still saddened by the death of his mom, and his relationship with his father has grown more and more tense, especially after Dylan was expelled from school. He hates that his family moved to the zoo and that none of his friends came to visit him. He also is so wrapped up in trying to get back home that he is completely oblivious to that fact that his longing for his old home is breaking up his friendship with Lily.

Rosie Mee

Rosie Mee is the youngest child of Benjamin and is also the one who convinced him to buy the zoo. She does not play much else in terms of plot significance other than a constant source of comic relief.

Duncan Mee

Duncan is Benjamin's older brother. Duncan serves as Benjamin's call back down to Earth. He tries to get Benjamin to get over his wife and later to get over the zoo. Benjamin ignores both of those bits of advice, but Duncan plays the ever important voice of reality.

Lily Miska

Lily is Kelly's 13-year old sister who is home-schooled and works at the zoo. She does not play a major role in the film other than having a few key lines and as a love interest for Dylan.

Walter Ferris

Walter Ferris is the closest thing to an antagonist in the film. He is the zoo inspector who is very arrogant and strict. The zoo must meet Ferris's standards if they want to get the zoo opened at all.

Peter MacCreedy

Peter is the zoo's carpenter who created many innovative ideas for the enclosures in the zoo. He believes that many of his ideas were stolen by Walter Ferris. The first time Walter comes to inspect the zoo, Peter says he will kill Ferris and is locked in the bathroom to keep him under control. The second time Ferris comes, MacCreedy gets himself drunk in order to get the zoo passed the inspection. This is a great addition to the movie, and it shows how dedicated these people are to the zoo.

Conclusion

The movie was a feel good movie, and it was good at it. The movie made me all warm and fuzzy, even if some of the scenes were a bit annoying. I rate this movie 8.5 out of 11 penguins.h

Brain Spill Book Review #12

The Gatekeepers

By Jacques Steinberg

Setting

The Gatekeepers is a nonfiction book that takes place in the late 20th Century and the early 21st Century. The story is focused around the Wesleyan University.

Summary

The book follows Ralph Figueroa, an admissions officer at Wesleyan, as he advertises Wesleyan and as he decides whether or not to admit certain applicants or not.

Characters

Ralph Figueroa

Ralph was an admissions officer at Wesleyan at the time when the book took place. Ralph comes from a Hispanic family from southern California, and he feels connected to the students from bad backgrounds that apply to Wesleyan.

Julianna Bentes

Julianna is a prospective Wesleyan student who attended Harvard-Westlake school on scholarship. Being that she is ethnically Brazilian, African, and Caucasian, she dances, and she has good grades, she is one of the top students in the United States. 

Migizi Pensoneau

Migizi is a Native American attending a prep school. Although he had below-average grades before attending the prep school, Migizi's ethnicity and SAT scores make him attractive to quite a few schools, including Wesleyan.

Jordan Goldman

Jordan is a student from Staten Island who is an aspiring writer. Although told not to, Jordan wants to send samples of his writing with is application. He also  is best friends with Devin, a boy who cannot stand on his own. His friendship with Devin is what he writes about in one of his college essays.

Becca Jannol

Becca is the president of  Harvard-Westlake. She has average grades and SAT scores and she once accepted a marijuana-laced brownie. When the student who brought the brownies to school was caught, Becca was the only student to admit that she accepted a brownie. After Becca decides to write about this in her admissions essay, the reactions from colleges vary, though Ralph wants to get Becca into Wesleyan.

Aggie Ramirez

Aggie is from a Hispanic background. She attends a private school and is school president. She, unfortunately, has low SAT and senior year grades. The rest of her grades are fine, though. She also says that her bad senior grades are due to her overload of extracurricular activities. She is, though, a prospective student at Wesleyan.

Tiffany Wang

Tiffany is a northern Californian Asian-American. Tiffany had average grades and was active in extracurricular activities, but she fails to expand on them in her essay. She does have a chance at getting accepted at Wesleyan, though.

Conclusion

The book was very interesting and really gets the reader connected with the characters. The book does go off on several rabbit trails, though, but I liked it. 7 waffles out of 11.

Brain Spill Movie Review #8

Journey 2: The Mysterious Island

Setting

Journey 2 takes place in the modern world sometime after Journey to the Center of the Earth took place. In this universe, the works of Jules Verne were actually true. There actually was a way to the center of the Earth and a Mysterious Island. Those who believe that the works of Verne are true are known as Vernians. 

Summary

After Sean Anderson, a Vernian who was present in The Journey to the Center of the Earth, has received a radio message in code from a Vernian, Sean and his stepfather, Hank Parsons, decipher the code, which gives the location of the Mysterious Island. Sean believes the message was sent by his grandfather, who has been missing, so Hank and Sean, along with their helicopter pilot, Gabato, and his daughter, Kailani, travel to the Mysterious Island, where they crash land on the beach. They soon meet Alexander Anderson, Sean's grandfather, but they also discover that the island will sink within the next few days, so the five of them read through Verne's book to discover how to survive and escape the Mysterious Island.

Characters

Sean Anderson

Sean Anderson is the only connecting character from the first movie. His father died while trying to discover the passage to the Center of the Earth. He relationship with his stepfather, Hank, is very tense because of the fact that some many people have deserted Sean in the past. Sean is also the main expert on the works of Verne and other authors brought up throughout the book.

Hank Parsons

Hank Parsons is Sean's stepfather. He, throughout the movie, is trying to build a solid relationship with Sean. He does have a rather tense relationship with Alexander Anderson, who is constantly making fun of Hank. Hank seems to be from retired military, and he is probably the strongest person on the team from the Mysterious Island.

Kailani

Kailani is Gabato's daughter. She helps him with his helicopter tour company, but she really wants to go to college. The only reason Kailani and Gabato agree to transport Hank and Sean is to get money for Kailani's college. Her main purpose, though, is to serve as a love interest for Sean. 

Alexander Anderson

Alexander Anderson is a Vernian and Sean's grandfather. Alexander is the one with knowledge of the Mysterious Island and knows how to navigate and survive the island, because he's been living there for about two years. He has a strained relationship with Sean because he has never really been there for Sean, even when Sean's father died.

Gabato

Gabato is Kailani's father and the owner of a helicopter tour company. His only real purpose in the film is as a source of comic relief throughout the film. In the story, he sort of has a real goal, which is to get his daughter to college, but even this just leads to more comedy. 

Conclusion

The movie is funny, fun, and interesting. It develops all its main characters fairly well and has a consistent pace. It makes good connections to the Verne books it references, but sometimes they stretch the examples a bit too far, like with Stevenson's Treasure Island or with Swift's Gulliver's Travels. The movie was , overall very fun. 6.55 out of 11 penguins.

Brain Spill Book Review #11

As I Lay Dying

By William Faulkner

Setting

This book takes place near Jefferson, Missouri before or during 1930.

Summary

Addie Bundren, the mother of the Bundren family, dies, but her final wish was to be buried over the river in the city of Jefferson. Her family builds her a coffin and starts to transport her to Jefferson, but along the way, they run into many difficulties, including broken bridges, broken legs, burning barns, and dead mules.

Characters

Darl

Darl is the second child of Addie and Anse Bundren. He is also, in my opinion, the main narrator of the book, though there are fifteen. People talk about him because he is a bit different, but he seems to be more level headed than most. He does do some strange things, though. For example, he set a barn on fire.

Anse Bundren

Anse is the father of the Bundren family. He is known for trying to find the way to finish a job with the least amount of work, but he promised Addie that he would bury her in Jefferson, so he won't accept any alternative plan. He tends to mumble to himself a lot and doesn't accept help from anybody when he is in need of some.

Jewel

Jewel is the third son of Anse and Addie. He has a horse that he worked to get and is so obsessed with the horse that Darl says that Jewel's mother was a horse. He likes to yell and cuss at people and is one of the more annoying characters.

Cash

Cash is the oldest son of the Bundrens. He is a good carpenter, but like his father, Cash tries to do things the easy way. He does, however, work hard on his mother's coffin. His role is as the narrator when other people  are doing things more important.

Dewey Dell

Dewey Dell is the daughter of Anse and Addie. She is a caring sister. A bit too caring, though. By the end of the book, it becomes obvious that she is pregnant, but then the book ends, and nobody important knows she is pregnant and nothing happens about that.

Vernon Tull

Tull is the neighbor of the Bundrens, and tries to help them all the time, but every time he does, Anse turns him away.

Vardaman

Vardaman is the youngest Bundren brother. His is a bit crazy and thinks that his mother is not the dead lady in the coffin, but the fish he caught and cut up earlier that day. He doesn't really do anything else in the book than say that his mother is a fish.

Addie Bundren

She is a dead person, but for some reason, she is still able to narrate part of the book.

Conlusion

Very little happens in the book and what does happen is not interesting. All the characters are annoying and make stupid decisions. 3 out of 11 waffles.

Brain Spill Movie Review #7

Salmon Fishing in the Yemen

Setting

Earth. Modern Times. Nothing unusual.

Summary

Dr. Alfred Jones is a man who works for the British government as an expert on salmon fisheries. He is contacted by Harriet Chetwode-Talbot, a representative for Sheikh Muhammed, a wealthy Yemeni who is fond of salmon fishing in Scotland. Sheikh wants to bring salmon and salmon fishing to Yemen. Though he thinks it is impossible to bring salmon fishing to Yemen, Jones is forced to work exclusively on this project because Patricia Maxwell, the prime minister's press adviser believes this could bring better Anglo-Yemeni relations. The plot revolves around Jones, Harriet, and Muhammed trying to make this dream a reality despite opposition from both the British and the Yemeni.

Characters

Dr. Alfred "Fred" Jones

Fred Jones is a man who suffers from Asperger's syndrome, which leads to difficulties in social interaction and to a repetitive and restricted life style. In Jones's case, this lifestyle includes going to his government job every day and doing little to nothing. This is what makes the Yemeni salmon fishing project even more difficult for Jones. Jones changes over the course of the film. His lifestyle, beliefs, and attitude all change over the course of the film.

Harriet Chetwode-Talbot

Chetwode-Talbot is the representative who comes and contacts Jones about the project. She also helps to contact certain people about the project, including the engineers of the Three Gorges Dam. She has a boyfriend in the army who goes missing in action early in the film, whom she mourns for a good deal of the film. Her outlook on life and her attitude towards Jones both change as the film plays its course.

Sheikh Muhammed

Sheikh Muhammed is a wealthy Yemeni who initiated and sponsored the salmon fishing project. He is a devoted fly-fisher and also a devote Muslim. He believes that fishing is much like religion and brings out many of the virtues in a man.

Patricia Maxwell

Maxwell is the press adviser of the prime minister of Great Britain. She is the one who gets Jones on the fishing project in the first place. She will try to find solutions for problems in the fishing project, but she just as easily drop government support of the project if it doesn't go the way she wants it to. 

Conclusion

The movie was very nice and had a good plot. I didn't really like the whole love part of the story, but the movie was overall very nice. 8.25 out of 11 penguins.

Brain Spill Movie Review #6

Men in Black 3

Setting

The Men in Black come from a secret organization that is in contact with multiple species of aliens. The goal of the Men in Black is to keep aliens hidden and comfortable on Earth without letting the secret of alien existence on to the rest of humanity. They also constantly save the planet from unfriendly aliens.

Summary

In 1969, Agent K captured and imprisoned Boris the Animal,      an alien who came to destroy an artifact that would protect the earth from an invasion from Boris the Animal's species. In 2012, Boris the Animal escapes from LunarMax and finds a way to travel back in time to kill Agent K. Agent J follows Boris back in time to stop him from killing K. If the two do not stop Boris the Animal, the Earth will be subject to invasion. Agent J and young Agent K work together to keep K alive and, in the process, discover more about both of their pasts.

Characters

Agent J

Agent J is Agent K's partner. The two of them are some of the most useful of the Men in Black and have saved the planet multiple times. Not much is known about J's past. J is annoyed at K's constant seriousness and negative attitude. He is also suspicious that K is not telling him just about everything that he knows about the Men in Black. He changes a lot over the movie as he discovers how much he likes K, and as he learns more about K and about himself.

Agent K

Agent K is a secretive and serious Man in Black. He is J's senior partner and has been with the Men in Black since the very beginning of the organization. He knows more about the organization than most, which leads to suspicion from J. He has also accumulated a lot of enemies over the years. He doesn't change much   over the movies, but his back story serves as something to be discovered over the source of the movie.

Agent O

Agent O isn't really a very important character, but she serves the purpose of revealing some of the back story of K. She also helps J to discover what has happened to K.

Griffin

Griffin is an alien who is able to see all possible outcomes in the future and also see past events. He comes from a planet that fought against Boris the Animal's people. He helps young Agent K and Agent J as they try to stop Boris the Animal. He also has the ArcNet, a device to stop invasion from Boris the Animal's people.

Boris the Animal

Boris the Animal hates being called Boris the Animal. He holds a grudge against Agent K for arresting him and also for stopping the invasion. His goal is to stop any of that from happening at all.

Conclusion

I like this movie because it mentions pie and aliens in it. I think that some of the parts of the movie are just strange or disgusting or awkward. I also think that Agent O was one of the most useless characters and she was in the movie too little to be developed well. The movie was, though, very good. 7.75 penguins out of 11.

Brain Spill Movie Review #5

The Avengers

Setting

The Avengers takes place in the modern day (2012) world. This takes place after Iron Man, Iron Man 2, Captain America: The First Avenger, and Thor. The story takes place mainly in New York City, where Tony Stark (Iron Man) has recently built a Stark Tower.

Summary

While studying the Tesseract for SHIELD, Dr. Erik Selvig and Nick Fury bring Loki to Earth. Loki uses a spear to mind control Selvig and Clint Barton (Hawkeye). Loki takes the Tesseract from the SHIELD base before he blows it up. Nick Fury and Agent Phil Coulson activate the Avengers Initiative. Steve Rogers (Captain America), Tony Stark (Iron Man), Bruce Banner (The Hulk), Natasha Romanoff (Black Widow), Thor (Thor), and later Hawkeye are gathered to help stop the threat that Loki poses and aim to find out what Loki is planning. The movie follows the Avengers as they attempt to stop Loki while also learning to settle the differences between them.

Characters

Nick Fury

Nick Fury is the leader of SHIELD and the Avengers initiative. He is serious and mysterious. He is not the most likable character and is not supposed to be. He is under suspicion by most of the characters for the beginning of the movie and remains mysterious for the entire movie. He is, though, a pretty awesome hero with one epic scene in the entire movie.

Agent Phil Coulson

Phil Coulson is Nick fury's right hand man. He makes appearances in Iron Man 2 and Thor as he tries to recruit heroes for the Initiative. He is probably one of the most ignored character in those movies, but in this movie, you finally appreciate him for who he is.

Steve Rogers/Captain America

Captain America is a character who feels out of his time period. He is a living anachronism. A lot of his problems come from this out-of-place feeling. This is why he is so at odds with Tony Stark who is so comfortable in the present time. He is a super soldier who was frozen in the Arctic since WW2 and carries a super shield.

Tony Stark/Iron Man

Iron Man is literally a man in an iron suite that is equipped with weapons and that can fly. This is what keeps Iron Man alive. As Tony Stark, he is a billionaire and the CEO of Stark Industries. Another reason why Stark is at odds with Captain America is because he made his fortune on selling weapons and promoting war. Stark and rogers both change to be more accepting of the other.

Thor

Thor is the Norse god of thunder who came to Earth to get Loki. Thor is pretty distant from the other characters because he is so high up in the way he acts. This is a source of tension within the Initiative. Thor, in my opinion, is one of the less focused on heroes, and he doesn't change as much as some of the other characters.

Bruce Banner/The Hulk

Banner, when angry, changes into the Hulk, a giant, green strong man. He does not get along with the government and stays hidden from his enemies to avoid changing into the Hulk. At the beginning, the Hulk is reluctant to come, but as time goes on, he learns to control his anger and to be a helpful avenger.

Clint Barton/Hawkeye

Hawkeye is a superhero without super powers. He is just able to use a bow really well (What is up with all the protagonists with bows these days?). He is also not focused on as a character and is actually under some sort of mind control spell for most of the movie. He is though, pretty awesome, and I'm happy they didn't stick with the purple outfit.

Natasha Romanoff/The Black Widow

The Black Widow is the most annoying and useless of the Avengers and nobody admires her. Seriously.

Conclusion

The movie was well thought out and well paced, and they didn't skimp out on the action scenes. I think the finally action scene was about twenty minutes long. The movie also has both a balanced internal and external conflict and develops all the main characters very well. I enjoyed the movie greatly. 9 out of 11 penguins.