January Movie Club Notes

7 Pounds

7 Pounds was chosen by David who said a combination of factors led him to his decision. He couldn't think of another film that really 'hit' him, and he was somewhat drawn to 7 Pounds because there was some mystery about the film's

The movie averaged a B rating, with individual grades ranging from A- to C. However it did generate a lengthy discussion that focused on whether or not the film developed all the characters and the relationships between them to create an understanding of what led Ben Thomas to his decision. Zanetta commented that she didn't like "to be spoon fed information", preferring to use her imagination to fill in the blanks. Others wanted to see more about his relationship with the some of the other characters. However everyone was in agreement about Rosario Dawson's performance in the film, which Denise described as "holding it right at the edge of everything" providing an understated delivery that held your interest and made the role believable. Not everyone agreed on Will Smith's acting however. Some thought that he did a great job and others, including this writer, felt that although he didn't embarrass himself, he didn't expand his acting repetoire. I was just tired of the same expression to show his anguish or torment so many times in the movie.

Finally, Greg comment that he thought that the Ben Thomas character was extremely arrogant in his choice to do what he did, generated a whole new discussion. (I don't want to say too much here, just in case someone reading this hasn't seen the film.) Needless to say there were those who felt that he acted unselfishly and somewhat heroically and that his motivation for his actions were without arrogance.

Here are the ratings for 7 Pounds:

India B-
Gwen B
Denise A-
Gaby B-
Yolanda C
Zanetta B
Marie B
Patrice B
Harold B
Melvin A-
Rylana B
John B+
Scott C+
Ed C+
David B+
Greg B-
Rudy B
Hope B
Ramona B
Carl B+
Kathi B
Puma A-
Absentee grades:
Zorah B-
Ron B

Slumdog Millionaire

Slumdog Millionaire was Harold's second choice, after originally considering another film for this month. But I think he's glad for his decision and so was the rest of our group. This movie received the highest rating of any film ever reviewed by Movie Club. In fact of the 22 people rating the film, no one gave it less than an A, with one exception, Scott, who gave it a B+. His reasoning was that he didn't understand why the game show host didn't want Jamal to win. Nevertheless, he thought it was a "really good film" and thought it demonstrated that intelligence could be developed through experience as much as from learning through books. Rylana thought the film depicted the resilience of the human spirit in the face of such anguish. Denise liked that Latika was never diminished in Jamal's eyes despite all she had done and had been through.

There wasn't a great deal of discussion since there was so much agreement on the film. The average for Slumdog was a strong A.

The individual ratings for Slumdog are as follows:

Harold A
Patrice A
John A+
Scott B+
Marie A
Ed A
David A+
Zanetta A+
Yolanda A
Rylana A+
Greg A
Puma A++
Kathi A
Denise A
Gwen A
India A
Mona A
Carl A
Hope A
Absentee Grades:
Stephanie A
Zorah A
Ron A+