Y Tu Mama tambien

[CMJ]

I know Jonathan despsed this film. Nonetheless I rented it last night(I make up my own mind) and watched it. I thought it was okay...it had some hilarious moments but I wasn't a big fan.

I didn't think it was a porno like Jonathan did(and to be honest the sex stuff was not a problem for me) but the film meandered a bit too much. Yes the film is a road trip flick..so OF COURSE it's gonna meander..but it didn't have a tight story. Also the narration was a bit over done IMHO. It irritated me after awhile.

I will say I thought the perfomances were pretty good..and it did have some clever moments. Overall 2 stars out of 4 for me.

[Shawn]

I had the benefit (cough) of watching it without subtitles. I don't speak Spanish. I pieced together what I could, and had a buddy of mine translate a bit of it.

Overall, I liked it. I'll agree that it meandered a bit. But not usually at the road trip parts, I thought. Some of the stuff earlier on seemed a bit boring and was easy to skip over. The ending really tied it together for me, though, and increased my opinion of the movie a good deal.

[CMJ]

I will agree..I dug the ending quite a bit.

[JonathanLB]

I feel the opposite way about the ending. The ending ruined the movie for me. Let me briefly explain without going into how much the movie blew or anything because I already said that, it's over, I shouldn't keep beating a dead horse.

I just felt the movie's message was going to be something like, "Hey, women come and go, people change, but friendship is most important." That was the message I got from the rest of the film, basically that these two guys were going to remain friends and their friendship was the important part of the film. That's a valuable message, nothing wrong with that. But the end of the movie shows them a bit later and they haven't spoken to each other for a long while, so that theme/message I thought I saw was blown away. I was bummed, because that's the one thing of value they had going there. Yeah, I understood the lady had cancer or whatever, but I'm sorry that didn't really do anything for me as far as adding any sort of message.

I totally agree about the narration, it was really irritating after a while. Actually it was hilariously bad in parts, LOL! Like mentioning these depressing facts that you're like, "WTF? Haha, ok... cool glad to know that. Not."

Well CMJ, I don't know what to say, I'm really glad that you didn't love this film, LOL! It makes me feel warm and fuzzy all over, haha. Even though you just thought it was ok, phew, I'm not the only one who doesn't think it's some masterpiece.

[CMJ]

I see where you're coming from on the friends last forever bit. It could've gone that way...

I took the ending more like people change when they graduate highschool. I know that's true. I've lost contact with many a person from that time who I never hear from.

College on the other hand...I have a much better rate of keeping those ties.

[JonathanLB]

I see what you mean, well that is one message that is pretty much true.

But I'm still in touch with my high school friends, I mean, they're my best friends. I doubt I'll make any more any time soon.

[CMJ]

That's cool Jonathan. For me(and alot of people I know) though college is where I really found my closest buddies. I'm not even sure I'd still be friends with some of my high scool people...if I still saw them.

People change. This road trip started that change, and growing up process. THAT(along with try to make every day count) is what I took from the movie and it's ending. :D

[JMK]

My best friends are the ones I went to high school with, and those friendships only grew stronger in college. Of course I met some people along the way in college that I consider very very good friends, but since high school, most of my friends have remained here, aside from one who met a hot chick in Australia, moved there and married her over this past weekend! :)

[JonathanLB]

Well yeah in my case, when I went to L.A. after high school, I could feel my high school relationships kind of waning a bit because of the distance of course. I mean, people here all had their own stuff to do, I talked to my friends online but to be honest not that frequently and they're not as good at communicating over AIM as I am. I can type so fast that I always write a lot and you get a similar effect to talking to me in person really, but when my friends type they spare too many words because they type like turtles, lol. I don't know how you can use the computer for so long and write papers all of your life and still type slow. You'd think at some point you'd just pick it up. Personally, I was a fast typist when I was a freshman in high school, about 14, and I didn't improve much after that. I believe everyone has a limit. I have written several books and hundreds of pages of reviews, but my speed never raises above 103 words per minute. I could probably hit 105 in the rare occassion but 140 is simply not possible for me. I question anyone being able to do that, I'd like to see it, but whatever. I am sure it is possible for a few people...

Anyway now that I'm at OSU, where a few of my friends are, and I'm here in a quad with Ben, my friendship with him at least has just picked up where high school left off. Unfortunately with Bryan, he is not as loyal, not the type of person I thought he was. He spends all of his time on Stacey and on school and has no time for his real friends, not just me, but Paul and many other friends he made and now barely hangs out with at all. Ben isn't like that, he's just a more logical, reasonable person and like any guy, he enjoys hot girls, but he isn't like Bryan, who once told me, "No offense but if I had a girlfriend, we'd probably never see each other, or maybe like once a month." Well, wow, that sure was a good prediction on his part! We call that "self-fulfilling prophecy" ladies and gentlement, lol. I just answered a test question on my Psych final today about an hour ago on that...

But that's ok, no offense to him, but he's on an ordinary path that is not going to take him to any level of greatness unless he refocuses his attention. I wish him the best and he is still a friend, but when I look at my other friends I see these incredible abilities that are going to make these people really, really successful in life. Bryan is just your ordinary guy, and someone has to be ordinary, what can I say. The fact is, only the top 0.1% of people have any chance at being truly recognizable individuals and the rest just have to accept what they get. In Ben's case, I know he can do whatever he wants, he is much smarter than me at many academic endeavors (engineering major? Ugg I wouldn't do that!), but I think he would be satisfied with a more ordinary life because he's kind of a cheap skate and cares nothing for material possessions or fame or anything. You have to want it to get it, lol.

My friend Sean Cox, on the same course as me, is transferring from OSU to USC next year or possibly another film school if USC doesn't accept him (I think he has a good shot, transfer students get in easier than do incoming freshman). He just looks like a director, I don't see him being some lowly grip or set dresser, no, he has a good shot at going to the top. I do not doubt my ability to compete with the upcoming filmmakers either :D

My other friend Sean, Mr. 1590 (SAT score, 10 points off perfect), is at Stanford and he's going to do very well for himself. But he won't be really famous I doubt, just probably upper middle class and he'll be plenty wealthy enough. It depends, I mean, I don't know what his motivations are. He wants to be a doctor, like not a research doctor but a surgeon or something, and I don't see a lot of income potential there past the $200,000 a year range, which is good, but you aren't going to be famous and you won't be super rich, just well off. That's, IMO, upper middle class. Upper class is more like $500,000 a year and beyond to me.

I prefer to associate with people who have similarly ambitious goals, though, because competition, even just friendly competition among friends, really increases your productivity. I remember in physics, both Bryan and I didn't like that class, we were bored to tears, but we casually competed on quizzes and tests (this is as we were becoming friends) and damn, I'd beat him with a 96% to 94% or he'd beat me 98% to 97% (on the final, I was impressed!). He was way outperforming, because he was a B student in high school with A's in easy classes, not in physics and whatnot. Yet he easily got a A's there, it was good for him knowing me :)

I've read studies that confirm that if you surround yourself with people who are encouraging and supportive versus denigrating and unmotivated you are far more likely to succeed and be confident in your abilities.