The question of the day is do you want to be educated about something you probably didn’t know anything about? If that is the case and you have Netflix, then you need to check out today’s film The Big Short. The Big Short is a film that chronicles the crash of the mortgage industry on Wall Street back in 2008/2009. The film follows four different denizens in the industry Michael Burry (Christian Bale), Jared Vennett (Ryan Gosling), Mark Baum (Steve Carell), and the team of Charlie Geller (John Magaro), Jamey Shipley (Finn Wittrock), and Ben Rickert (Brad Pitt) as they decide to bet against the housing market and it’s loans which was simply unheard of at the time. They were betting against the economy which was considered ballsy. The film also stars Tracy Letts (Killer Joe) as Lawrence Fields, Marisa Tomei (My Cousin Vinny) as Cynthia Baum, Adepero Oduye (12 Years A Slave) as Kathy Tao, Rafe Spall (Life Of Pi) as Danny Moses, Hamish Linklater (Battleship) as Porter Collins, Jeremy Strong (Zero Dark Thirty) as Vinnie Daniel, Melissa Leo (Red State) as Georgia Hale, Karen Gillan (Guardians Of The Galaxy) as Evie, and the film features cameos from Anthony Bourdain, Margot Robbie, Selena Gomez, and the film was directed by Adam McKay (The Other Guys).
If you do not know anything about trading stocks, bonds, and the housing market then you better pay full attention to the film cause you could get absolutely lost. They have Margot Robbie, Anthony Bourdain, and Selena Gomez appear on screen to help break down some of the terms into dummy form. Even then, I would still advise people not to leave at any point or you will be confused. If you want to see how crooked and stupid the US Government and the banks were with the average working persons money then you need to watch this movie because it’s all about how they screwed you with no lube. It’s hard to choose an MVP for this film because they all really did a terrific job in the film, but some of my favorite moments belonged to Ryan Gosling and Steve Carell especially when they were together. One of my favorite scenes in the film is when Gosling is trying to explain why he is betting against the market to Steve Carell using the Jenga format to represent all the loans. The interactions between the two during this scene are just awesome and worth seeing. After you have seen the film, you are going to be astonished about how so many things just slipped through the cracks during this whole ordeal especially with the mortgage market in the early to mid-2000’s where so many people were defaulting and foreclosures were happening. This film sheds the best light on the reason for the collapse of the economy so be prepared. I am going to give the film an A for a final grade because it’s smart, thought provoking, and intuitive. Check it out on Netflix right now as we speak.
The film I chose for today was one that for some odd and strange reason, I had avoided watching back when it was released. What motivated me to finally watch Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is tat the fact that Netflix released the sequel to the film this year and so I chose the original for today’s film. Chow Yun Fat (The Killer) stars as Li Mu Bai, a storied master and warrior in China who is trying to give up the lifestyle by relinquishing his famous and most storied sword The Green Destiny. After the sword is stolen, he is sent on a mission with another warrior in Yu Shu Lien (Michelle Yeoh) to try and track down the notorious fugitive that they believe stole the sword. What they don’t bargain for is a young adolescent teenager who is the nobleman’s daughter that is highly skilled standing in there way because she is at a crossroads in her life. The film also stars Ziyi Zhang (Rush Hour 2) as Jen Yu, Chen Chang (The Assassin) as Lo “Dark Cloud”, Pei-Pei Cheng (They Wait) as Jade Fox, Sihung Lung (The Wedding Banquet) as Sir Te, Xian Gao (The Legend) as Bo, and the film was directed by Ang Lee (Life Of Pi).
I can certainly tell you that I am definitely happy that I checked out this film because it was definitely different than you average martial arts films. I say that because the martial arts was really only a part of the film and not the main focus. At least that’s how I feel in my opinion because it was more of a love story. Of course, the martial arts was a big part of the film, but it was much more poetic. Ziyi Zhang’s character is at a crossroads because she wants to follow her family’s wishes of getting married to who they arranged to her, but she is in love with someone else. It’s also kind of a coming of age story for her because she feels tat with the sword, she has great power, but she soon earns from Li Mu Bai that it’s much more than that and that she wasn’t really worthy of the sword. Of course the action scenes in the film are phenomenal and excellent to watch with all of the sword fighting, martial arts action. The flying through the air bits can be a little much to watch at times because it’s pure fantasy, but at the same time it was cool to see on the screen. It does add to the imagination and the beauty of their art by seeing that. The other great part about the film is the cinematography and the shots of the scenery are just beautiful to watch. The film is in Chinese, but never fear because there is subtitles. It’s available to watch on Encore Play and Encore. I am going to give the film an A- for a final grade because I really enjoyed the film.
365moviesin365dayschallenge 