Annie

On Tuesday, January 20, 2015, I went to see the movie Annie.  This is an adaptation of Annie the musical and it has Jamie Foxx, Cameron Diaz in it.

I haven't seen the original, but I have heard that the story is not the same.  It was a fun movie, but...  The voices were very autotuned.

However, there were lots of shots of New York, which was a nice reminder, as I spent a summer there.

Paddington

On Saturday, I went to see the movie Paddington, featuring Hugh Bonneville, Sally Hawkins, Nicole Kidman and Imelda Staunton as Aunt Lucy and Ben Whishaw Paddington.

The movie is about Paddington Bear, who is a special species of bear from Peru.  This species of bear loves marmalade.  Paddington ends up making his way to London, after his aunt and uncle met an English explorer who explored Darkest, Peru.  It gives a nice introduction as to the story of Paddington but also gives it some new high jinks.

I had a very good time and Nicole Kidman was a fantastic villain.

The Imitation Game

On Tuesday, January 13, 2015, I went to see the movie The Imitation Game featuring Benedict Cumberbatch, along with Keira Knightley, Matthew Goode, Rory Kinnear and Allen Leech.

The movie talks about the life of Alan Turing, modern day mathematician and computer scientist who created the Turing machine, the father of the modern computer.  He also helped win WWII by breaking the Enigma code.  The movie focused more on the process of the building of the machine and breaking the code.  But, some parts of Alan Turing's life were discussed.  Such as his being homosexual and later charged with indecency and either sentenced to time in prison or hormonal treatments (chemical castration).

Since this was a movie, there were events that were dramatized and fictionalized, but I think that the majority of the gist was there.

A brilliant performance by Benedict Cumberbatch, which I hope he gets an Oscar nod for.

A must see!  Cumberbatch's performance will get you so involved into the movie...  And as a fellow gay mathematician, this really hit home!

Whiplash

On Tuesday, January 6, 2015, I went to see the movie Whiplash, featuring Miles Teller and J.K. Simmons.

The story is about Andrew Neiman (played by Miles Teller) who is a first year student at Shaffer Conservatory of Music in New York City.  He is an aspiring jazz percussionist who ends up being "seen" by a teacher there, Terence Fletcher.

Terence Fletcher has a reputation.  He brings out the best in musicians.  However, the way that he does it, it's not very kosher.  It gets to a point where Andrew goes to a concert, gets in a car accident and still stumbles to the concert hall to try to perform.

What happens?  You'll have to watch the movie to find out.  But it's one crazy pitched against another!  As an educator, I choose not to motivate my students in this fashion...