Patriotic Movies We Love

    Fourth of July just left us this past Monday, in all it's glory and majesty, this day is a day to be celebrated above all others and will forever be in the heart of Americans in the generations to come.
    One of the ritual things some of us have within the 4th is to watch a patriotic movie which raises all kinds of emotional responses and gets us ready for some fireworks action.
    I've recently taken a poll and found a list of basically the most watched movies during the 4th of July and most patriotic movies of all time, here we go:

Forrest Gump

       
        Here's a movie about the simple everyday causal American, it's a story that shows the life of one man and his involvement within American history. It gives us a clear picture of what the American dream looks like, the idea that no matter who you are or what limitations you might have, that you can still succeed in life. In America the land of opportunity.

Rocky IV

     
            This movie puts us in the middle of the Cold War, with Stallone representing the American dream that will be fighting against Russia. It's a fantastic movie, there's a sense of pride that wells up in any American that watches this movie, a sense of "we must win" when Rocky is going through the toughest fight in his career yet. Of course only to have him leave the arena with the American flag raised, a nice touch in the end.

Independence Day

      So this one is my personal favorite, it encompasses all we love about America. Us going and kicking some Alien taint and saving the world, women working in the white house (not true in many countries), freedom of religion, it hurts our pride when the aliens destroy all our great American monuments, but our pride is reformed with the presidential speech, it's filled with American Dream icons from beginning to end. And honestly I don't care who you are, after you finished watching the presidential speech in this movie you can't help but want to join in and kick some alien taint.

Air Force One

     
          Harrison Ford is the president of the United States, he's on Air Force One and terrorists attack taking over the flight. What does the president do? He fights, of course, taking down the whole terrorist unit by himself, cause our presidents are amazing and awesome and can do anything. It's probably one of the 'brashest' movies in the list, specially when Harrison Ford looks at the head terrorist and says the epic cheesy line, while projecting a perfect man voice, "Get off my plane!". It's so ridiculous that it becomes awesome.

Any Alien, Monster, World Threat Movie

     
         For some reason when tragedy strikes it does so in the United States, and of course we retaliate back and destroy the threat, or lead the world in being able to destroy the threat. Think of any alien, monster or world threat movie that is not in America, where America does not save the day, yeah, I know, it doesn't exist. America is just that awesome, at least according to Hollywood (and they would never steer us the wrong way of course), regardless of semantics these movies are all a great 4th of July pick, anything that raises your American spirit will do I guess. And don't forget the coming movie Captain American which shows us what a real hero looks like in all its patriotic glory.

The Patriot (or other American War movies)

    
        There's something to be said about Mel Gibson with a tomahawk killing some Brits in the name of justice. A fantastic film that raises our American pride to the max, with a complete cast of amazing actors, which includes the late Heath Ledger, the movie is sure to blow you away. From beginning to end it screams patriotism, and will forever have a place on this list for years to come.

      So go and grab some popcorn, put on your America shirt or pajamas and go watch some good ol' American cinema, where the good triumph over the bad, the weak against the strong, all while raising that flag we love, in the land of the free and home of the brave.

     We hope you had a fantastic 4th of July and a great week,

  Love from your humble blogger,

Know Your Blogger Unplugged: "Old movies that would fail due to technology"

        I was thinking about old movies a few days ago and about what the effects of today's technology would have upon them. I quickly realized that various old movies could never work within the frame of today's society. Technology has really changed the way by which we perceive the world, thus I put a list together of four ways in which technology has clearly saved us a ton of hassle but posed problems to cinema classics if they had occurred in our generation.


                                                                                  Titanic

        Inflatable life rafts. Though I don't think today's technology would allow for a ship to hit an iceberg, if in fact it did occur everyone would have a life raft. So no epic scene with Kate and Jack in the freezing water. So though in life a tragedy would have been avoided, in the big screen the movie would lose it's major plot line. So Kate would have left with Jack and lived a poor life in the suburbs, struggling everyday for a bit of bread. Now that's just a movie no one wants to watch. Moving on..

                                                                             Grease

      Social networks. Yeah this could really hurt a ton of movies. Could you just imagine his facebook status "Summer loving, if you know what I mean" and all the friend's comments under it? No escape from that. Sandy would be out of there so quick, good for her too, let's be honest, she's in a good place in the beginning of the movie and in the end she's smoking, drinking and hanging with a bad crowd. Over all she's better off. Thank you technology!




            Willy Wonka And The Chocolate Factory

             There's just no way you would be able to get five kids today into a chocolate factory without getting half your secrets spilled on youtube, and wikipedia. The wikileaks guys would be all over that. There would have to be a "smart phone confiscation room" prior to entering into the factory. And even then somehow everything would still end up online. It's one of the aftermaths of today's technology, no secret is kept secret for too long. So no epic elevator ride for Charlie.....unless in the end instead of giving the gum back he gave his smartphone away. Maybe that would work....who knows. And yes, in my mind Willy Wonka has a green hat and purple scarf, deal with it.


  Almost every old horror movie, or old robbery movie
                

           Do you even remember old wired phones? Ancient of things. The only way to make this work in a movie would be to add a scene where the thief has a "thank god this thingamaginga that prevents cell phones from working exists". In the old days you could just cut a wire and bang, no phone line. Another scenario saved/ruined thanks to technology. Though this is an easy fix, I still always can't help but smile when I see this happen in an old flick. Go go cell phones.

          Here's your question of the week,

     What movie do you think would be ruined with today's technology?

   Post a comment bellow or shoot me an email, or find us on facebook and leave a comment there.

    Love from your humble blogger,