We Bought A Zoo

We Bought A Zoo was my favorite movie of the Holidays, and maybe year, I know I will get some raised eyebrows for that bold statement. Well besides the annual watching of the Home Alone's. But those don't really count. A heart warming tale of a widowed father trying his best to raise his kids. I have never been in that situation, in fact I don't have kids. But I felt like the movie did a good job of displaying some of the common struggles that single parents go through. I thought that the acting was really good. Matt Damon reminded me that he is one of my favorite actors, and rather versatile in his acting. The kids did an excellent job. And of course the lovely Scarlett Johansson was superb. The comic relief came from Thomas Haden Church, who I came to know from the hit 90's TV show Wings.

I sometimes hear people say that they don't like movies based on true stories. I am not sure what their argument is, I personally love them, and make the movie that much more real. Maybe people like to escape to a movie, and these true story movies just remind them that good things do happen in this world and they don't like that. I don't know, but the fact that this is based on a true story just adds to the craziness of the story.

One more side note, I find it ironic that this movie came out just after the news story that came out of Ohio. A man who had a zoo at his house let all the animals go and then shot himself. The animals were out running the streets, lions, cougars, monkeys, all the usual zoo animals were out on the run. Luckily this movie does not have that same ending.

The movie starts out by portraying the dynamics of a single parent home and the struggles that can be experienced. The son that is around 12 or 13 is rebelling at school, and causing problems, but the daughter is the optimist that is always looking for the good in everything. Maggie Jones plays this younger daughter, and there is no way that you can't say she is the cutest little girl. When the son gets expelled from school Matt Damon feels like it was the last straw and he needed to make some changes to move on from the lose of his wife.

He begins to look for houses and he comes across this run down zoo. Damon feels that this is what will help bring his family together. Knowing the risks, and having no knowledge or experience with animals he figures he can make it work.

Once the zoo is purchased we see the family learn about hat life style, and what comes with living on a zoo. They definitely have things fall into place to be able to keep the zoo, and there is a love story aspect with the son and a girl that helps at the zoo. That relationship is elementary, and funny to watch grow.

As you expected there is a love story between Damon and Johansson. Johansson is one of the zoo keepers, and is the one to really show the family the ropes. There are some ups and downs in the relationship, but once Damon showed that he was serious about this zoo and was going to fight for it she realized to be supportive and help him.

The movie shows Matt Damon develop a relationship with Spar, an old tiger that lives in the zoo and becomes sick. Luckily the tiger doesn't talk and teach live lessons to Damon, but the time spent with Spar, and taking of him taught Damon about perseverance and fighting for what it right. In these private moments of talking with this tiger he really discovers the purpose of buying this zoo.

There was also a Field of Dreams moment of "if you build it, they will come." For the zoo to survive it needed to be open, and it was not a done deal that people would come out since it had not been open for so long.

I thought it was a great movie about perseverance, and not giving up on what you believe will help your family. Sacrificing for your family, and thinking more of just yourself. It was just one of those happy uplifting movies, that is not over the top. The real zoo is in Great Britain.

This is definitely one of my longer reviews, but like I said it was one of my favorites from the year. One last point that I really liked, and this is the one that I relate to my life, or take as advice. Damon's character lost his wife, and he never really would talk about her. Once the zoo brings him out of the mourning, he explains to his son, who he has begun to develop a stronger bond with, that he only needs twenty seconds of extreme courage. He tells the story of how he met their mom, and how he only needed twenty seconds of courage to ask the mom out on a date. Twenty seconds, how true it is that we only need twenty seconds of insane courage, and then what ever happens happens, but you will never know if you don't use those twenty seconds courageously.

The Adventures of Tintin

Turns out that Tintin is on the biggest comic books in Europe, I had never heard of it until one of the challenges on the Amazing Race had to do with this Tintin comic book. When I saw that preview I was very intrigued to see the movie. Plus you know that if Spielberg is doing an animated film it is going to be well done. It did not let down.

Although I am not a fan of this 3-D movement, I have tried to see a 3-D movie and it gives me a headache. I find the glasses distracting, and hard to pay attention. After saying that I notice that some movies are made for the 3-D experience and this is one of them, however I did not see it in 3-D. I still was able to enjoy the movie though.

The Adventures of Tintin is about this successful newspaper reporter Tintin who stumbles upon a model ship while walking through the market. As soon as he purchases the ship he has two different people come up to him to try and buy the ship. The action then begins. The adventure takes us to a drunken ship captain who is the last descendant of the captain of the original ship. Tintin and the Captain then team up to protect hidden treasure. It has a National Treasure like ending.

I try to find movies that have more than just entertainment, but have a message in them that I can walk away with. For the most of this movie I was purely entertained. Then there came a point in the adventure where it seems like Tintin was not going to be able to solve the mystery. Tintin had never really failed, and had always been an optimist.Tintin was not handling this realization very well. The captain had overcome his own demons throughout the adventure because of Tintin's optimism. Then came this point where it seemed like their roles had changed. The captain gave this speech to Tintin that changed my outlook on more than just the movie. Here is their conversation.

Captain Haddock: I thought you were an optimist

Tintin: You were wrong, weren't you? I'm a realist.

Captain Haddock: Ah, its just another name for a quitter.

Tintin: You can tell me what you like. Don't you get it? We failed.

Captain Haddock: Failed. There are plenty of others willing to call you a failure. A fool. A loser. A hopeless souse. Don't you ever say it of yourself. You send out the wrong signal, that is what people pick up. Don't you understand? You care about something, you fight for it. You hit a wall, you push through it. There's something you need to know about failure, Tintin. You can never let it defeat you.

As we have learned from previous reviews, I am in a position in life where I am deciding what to do with life, where I am going, and what I am supposed to do. I have faced failure, and I am sure I will again. But Captain Haddock was on to something. We cannot let failure get the best of us. Although I have had six or more job interviews in the last two months, and did not get any of the jobs, I can't stop going into that next job interview. I can't let them think I am a failure. They are going to see what I show them. All those other jobs in a sense called me a failure (now that sounds extreme, and I sure they don't think I am failure, but they don't see me as the guy they want working for them), but I can't show the next job that. I have hit a wall, but I am pushing through it.

A kid movie yes, but it was more than just entertainment in the end. I thought that the animation was top notch, the story was intriguing, and the voices were very well done. It was overall an entertaining film, and one that could have several more to come.

Trailer for Adventures of Tintin