Being couped up at home most of the summer results in two things: junk food consummation and lots and lots of movie viewings.

I’ll start off Friday Flicks with Freedom Writers, starring Hilary Swank. It was such a simple story with a very predictable plotline (in fact, I’ve noticed that most of the discs I went through in the last week and a half were “feel-good” movies) yet I enjoyed it tremendously. It’s about these ghetto kids in high school nobody cares about until their new English teacher came along. Ms. Gruwell introduces the class to Anne Frank and gets them to write their own diaries about their lives, at the same time battling a stubborn and prejudiced education system and problems in her personal life. The kids’ acting were surprisingly heartfelt. I love how they learn to overcome their obstacles as a group and unite together to face their difficulties.

I just finished watching Step Up a few minutes ago, which falls in pretty much the same genre as Take the Lead. The latter was a lot more appealing, mainly because I’m such a big fan of ballroom dancing. Take the Lead is about a ballroom teacher who tries to help a bunch of kids in detention in a nearby school through dance lessons. The choreography is amazingly done and Antonio Banderas (who plays Pierre Dulaine, the teacher) has a mesmerizing accent. And who can forget that sexy Argentine Tango dance between Pierre and Morgan?

Step Up lacked much of the chemistry as seen in Take the Lead. The story tells how a “good kid gone astray” meets a dancer at the school where he’s doing community service work and the two team up for a senior piece. Seems like Hollywood’s running out of story ideas. The mold for these kind of stories seem to be 1) kids from two polar worlds are forced together 2) upbeat music plays while they have a great time 3) romance starts 4) some obstacle comes up 5) they get through it and be happily ever after.

After weeks of waiting, I finally saw Pirates of the Caribbean: at World’s End. For some reason, PotC has always been the movie I hated while watching it, only to realize it’s geniusness upon further reflection. I’m completely hopeless at understanding accents so I end up oblivious to most of the plot twists and turns. Johnny Depp pulls off another stunning performance. Orlando Bloom sort of faltered in this one, just a bit. Keira Knightley rose to her challenge magnificently - I was so happy when she became a pirate lord! There are two ship scenes that were quite memorable: the flipping of the ship for the sunrise and the final battle in the whirlpool. If only I didn’t have to keep checking Wikipedia to understand everything…

In other news, I swear my dad’s trying to use reverse psychology to guilt-trip me into studying. He keeps going on and on about how I’m going to end up at a crappy community college majoring in web design or something (he doesn’t seem to realize that without an outlet, without a blog, I’ll end be constantly snapping at people). I’m aiming for Ivy Leagues. Yes I know my grades suck. Thanks for the reassurances dad, really appreciated it *glares*.

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