Smiles and Thank You, Movie Reviews

Some people just smile easily and have a happy appearance no matter what their real mood is.  I am a person who does not smile easily and have that natural “grumpy” look, especially when I am thinking into some deep dark secret place. To illustrate my problem when I go to social things and smile a lot I actually get jaw cramps from the fake smile.  So, for some strange reason I had this brain explosion thought process that I would try doing two things that would take away this “grumpy” look and see what happens.  The two things I decided to do would be smile more for no reason at all and say “thank you” more.  I found that as I did this when I went into convenience stores and I smiled while saying thank you, I got a very favorable response both orally and visually.  That led me to start doing this every time I deal with someone, especially retail people.  They get real bored with their jobs and for the most part do not really understand that if the consumer public did not buy from their store they would not be in business.  On the other hand we, as the public consumer, can offer our thanks for them being there and then a pleasant smile to go with it.  It really breaks the ice, especially with me doing the ice breaking.  My “grumpy” demeanor becomes friendly and appreciative of the retail clerk serving me and then I noticed they start to smile and return a thank you to me.  Then on the selfish side I feel like I have done something for humanity and rather than look and be grumpy I now feel like Mr. Peepers must have felt when he enlightened lives and made people happy.  Wow, going to the 7/11 has never been this much fun until now.  Remember, smile big and say thank you!!

Movie Reviews:  While it has been some time since I reviewed the movies I promise that the movies I have seen and will review are still available in most cities, so you don’t have to rent or go to “pay for view” to see these movies.

“The Butler”, **, In my opinion this movie had great potential but became too much of a cause movie as opposed to an interesting true human interest story.  It turned out to be one big racial campaign to further emphasize how bad whitey was to the black man and how stupid and petty some of the American presidents were on the racial issue of their times.  This is a true story of a black man who rose beyond the cotton fields in the South to become a full time butler in the White House, through 8 presidents played by Forest Whitaker, a very good actor.  While I deplore what was done in the name of slavery this is the year 2013 where many great and good things have happened to offset this terrible treatment.  Slavery has been abolished for many years and the only thing I see that resembles it today is the National Football League where the “whitey” owner sits up high in the sky in his luxury box with his billions of dollars and his “whitey” superintendent(head coach) stands down on the sides directing the grossly over paid “slaves” who are mostly black, to play a silly game called football and receive millions to do it.  Now wait a minute, I am now going off on one of my causes or pet peeves so I will get back to the movie.  It had a good theme, good acting, and directing but just got off of the subject.  To date everyone I have ask who have seen it felt the same way.  So, as a novice student of the American presidents I was very disappointed.  Go see with these points in mind.  Rated PG-13 for some violence and disturbing images, language, sexual material, thematic elements and smoking.  

“Elysium”, ***, If you think Los Angeles is bad now wait till you see it in the year 2154.  It is completely over populated with nothing but filth, disease, death and destruction going on every day.  The real rich have built them a space ship world that takes them away from Earth to a perfect place of perfection.  Jodie Foster plays the strict Defense Minister of Elysium who makes sure the Earthlings stay in their proper place. Matt Damon is destined to become the villain and hero who will finally fulfill his dream of living on Elysium.  If you like sci-fi you will like this a lot.  Rated R for strong bloody violence and language throughout. 

“We’re The Millers”, *,  The only good thing about this movie is looking at Jennifer Aniston, who plays a stripper in the stupid story line.  The story involves a small time pot dealer played by Jason Sudeikis who gets himself in debt to his suppliers and must figure out a way to clear himself.  The big boss gives him the “opportunity” to go into Mexico and bring back a truck load of pot and then his debt will be forgiven.  He decides to put together a family of misfits, the stripper Aniston as the doting mom, and two misfit teens traveling in a large motorhome into Mexico.  It is a totally stupid story line and the real facts are they would have been blown away by the Mexican drug bad guys. 

EA, SH,........:)!

greerman