Not everyone falls for movies that include dramatic, romantic scenes. But when you come across one that grabs your attention, you can’t help but thoroughly analazing what might make it an interesting piece or not. Based on a novel by Nicholas Sparks, who also inspired another movie called “Message in a Bottle”, “A Walk to Remember” narrates a story that may well be happening in modern days. If you are looking to go see a movie from which you will get a life lesson out of, then A Walk to Remember is definitely the movie for you.

The story takes place in Beaufort, North Carolina. Landon Carter (played by Shane West who also appeared in movies such as A time for dancing and Get over it) and his friends, all popular high school seniors, play a prank on a kid who gets sent to the hospital as a result. Out of all the group members that were part of the prank, Carter is the one that unfortunately gets caught. As a punishment for his actions, he is forced to do community service. He has to star in a school play in company of the other nerds that make up the drama club. Now that should not really be considered a sentence if Carter gets to be the lead character of the play, except that there is one reason. He is not an actor, he knows absolutely nothing about the drama club and could turn out making a complete fool of himself by starring in the play. In addition, Carter is popular so if he is seen hanging around the “unpopulars”, he could lose his reputation among his other popular friends. And surely he does not want that.

In this same play is Jamie Sullivan an unpopular kid, the daughter of the town’s preacher. The character of Jamie Sullivan is played by Mandy Moore who has also starred in How to deal and Chasing Liberty. Jamie is always teased by the other girls at the school because she is supposedly too religious and not out going. She is considered boyish and annoying because she never wears make-up.

But when Carter gets stuck studying his lines for the play, it’s Jamie that he turns to for help. She is very good at acting and Carter feels that she’s the only who can help him so he can fulfill his community service duties and get them over with once and for all. Jamie agrees to help him out less than one condition: he should not fall in love with her. Careless, Carter accepts. After all, he only dated loud, well-known, gorgeous girls that literally looked like models. No way in hell did he think that he would actually fall for Jamie. But little did he know he finds himself growing stronger feelings for her day by day by an ironic turn of fate. Never would he have thought that someone with such an outstanding personality as the one that Jamie Sullivan possessed would sweep him off of his feet. Carter ceases to hang out with his popular friends and devotes all of his time to Jamie. They eventually fall in love and stay with each other despite the looks and bad tongues that gossip around the school.

But every happy moment has a dark spot to spoil everything. So it turns out that she had her reasons for asking Carter not to fall in love with her after all because Jamie was dying. She was diagnosed with leukemia and had very little time to live.

In this poignant story where I literally stay stuck to the television until the end, the viewer will anticipate with the same impatience how Carter will react to Jamie’s revelation. Will he turn his back on her or will they make things work before she lives this world? From the moment at which Jamie confesses her disease to Carter, you can not help but to wonder what will happen next.

The very first thing that catches the viewer’s attention in this film is the story. The actors play very well their role but, the story is what’s to be considered the most when it comes to analyzing the movie. Directed by Adam Shankman, also director of high-praised movies such as Hairspray, and Bringing down the house, A walk to remember is definitely a must-see for fans of tragic love stories.

      One of the most memorable scenes of the movie is when Jamie and Carter make that first click: when they finally realize that they can no longer hide their feelings behind an imaginary veil. That moment when they make eye contact, directly tells the viewer that something was definitely about to happen. It happens during the big opening of the play. In the plot, Carter’s character meets Jamie’s character and in the course of the play, they get to know each other. At the end, Jamie is supposed to sing him a song and it should have stayed to that. But no one saw what happens next coming! Carter literally leans over to Jamie and shares a kiss so passionate with her that the assistance is left in a state of total astonishment.

            Another part of the movie that catches the viewer’s attention is the scene where Jamie tells Carter all. You can perfectly see the struggle that is going on inside of her before she lets it all out. She starts out with the words: “I’m sick”.

“Well yeah”, answers Carter, “you will get better, you just have to get some medicine that’s it”

“You don’t understand Landon”, she replies in despair, “I’m very sick”. Carter looks at her with a puzzled look and with tears in her eyes Jamie painfully admits:

“I’m dying Landon, I have leukemia. I warned you not to fall in love with me but you did anyways”. And bitterly sobbing, she runs away.

            At this very moment, the viewer can see from the camera’s angle how intense the emotion is between them, with Carter’s confusion after hearing these words and Jamie’s misery after revealing what’s going on with her. Shankman does a great job in having a close-up at this point so he can grab the viewer’s attention on the intensity of the moment.

            Along with this movie goes a soundtrack. Sang by Mandy Moore herself, Cry tells the poignant story of how the couple met, and how through it all they try to work it out.

            Now this movie has received a lot of negative critiques many concerning the actors and the story. A lot of people thought that the story was too unreal and too childish. People like Neil Smith, a movie reviewer for BBC movies, qualify the movie as being “a tooth-rottingly sentimental weepie”.

This should not be considered totally accurate because the actors made a great job in presenting the story to the audience. One can definitely perceive how genuinely and with how great of a passion, the actors get into their characters and act out the plot. A lot of vivid emotions are involved in this piece and there are many things to get out of the movie and seeing it is the best way to find out what they are.

Surely at the end of the movie, Jamie dies but the real question that is left to the viewer at this point is what happens with Carter after she’s gone and how the time she spent with him made an impact in his life.

To some, it’s probably not the best way to end a movie but with this unanswered question left to the viewer, Shankman lets his audience anticipate their own idea of the end.

Work Cited

A Walk to Remember.  Adam Shankman. DiNovi Pictures. 25 Jan 2002.

Smith, Neil. Movie Reviewer for BBC. 11 Sep 2002. 7 May 2008 [http://www.bbc.co.uk/films/2002/09/02/a_walk_to_remember_2002_review.shtml].

[http://imagecache2.allposters.com/images/pic/MG/196028~A-Walk-to-Remember-Posters.jpg].

[http://img2.timeinc.net/people/i/2006/celebdatabase/mandymoore/mandy_moore1_300_400.jpg].

[http://images.starpulse.com/pictures/2007/02/22/previews/Shane%20West-SGG-042621.jpg].

[http://youtube.com/watch?v=3WA7I_iHXXM].

College life can be pretty rough sometimes. Many kids when they come right out of high school and go to college with hopes of doing something right with their life think that they‘re in it for the excitement of their life. After all, it is said that college is one of the most agreeable experiences in someone’s life. It is the place where you make friendships that could last a lifetime.

But making it through this time takes determination and motivation all together. I decided to write about one of the issues that affect college kids’ work in school as well as outside of school: bad sleeping habits. In many classes, the heads on the desks struggling to stay awake is very perceivable.

The first way to approach this problem would be to start by naming and analyzing some of the causes. One of the major causes of this issue is that most college students stay up late and go to bed at very unreasonable hours. Evidently, when you do not get enough sleep at night, there is no way that you’ll be able to stay awake the next day.

The reasons why most students stay up so late are linked with schoolwork, their job and their night life. The best solution would be to better manage time. Then, we could consider reasonable times to party and stopping to procrastinate.

Students could try to use planners and calendars in order to plan out better their days and include work where it’s supposed to go as well as school. Another way to help also would be to take classes at hours beneficial to them. For example, during registration time, students could choose not to take early classes if they think that it’ll be difficult for them to wake up in the morning.

There’s a lot to do in college and it can get very stressful at times. But if you can manage your time wisely, it won’t be so intimidating after all.

            I have no idea where he came from but this little guy, as soon as he came out on the music industry made a name for himself instantly. His music are heard everywhere. Anytime, you turn on the radio, his voice blasts out. His dance moves are beyond describable words. This little guy is a prodigy. I’m of course referring to the one and only Chris Brown!

            Chris came out with his instant hit Run It and since then, he hasn’t stopped coming out with very catchy tunes to dance to. All ages find his music interesting and that it brings new assets to hip hop and R&B.

            Chris Brown has sung along side famous names in the Rap Industry, notably T-Pain with whom he sang Kiss Kiss. This song has won a nomination for the 50th Annual Grammy Awards in the category for Best Rap/Sung Collaboration.

Brown, one of two children, was born and raised in the small town of Tappahannock, Virginia, the son of Joyce Hawkins and Clinton Brown. He was discovered by a local production team in his father’s gas station. A dancer since age two, Brown did not get awareness of his singing talent until the age of eleven.

            Chris is not only a singer but also an actor! Seems like this young talent has more than one trick in his sack! Brown has appeared in the very popular TV show One on One, the dance movie Stomp the yard and the family comedy movie, This Christmas. And right now, his hit single, No Air sang along side last year’s American Idol winner is working its way to the top list of billboards.

            And that’s not all! In addition to being very busy recording songs in the studio and rocking the big screen, Chris Brown lent his efforts to promote the Math-A-Thon benefiting St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital y starring as the host in a film to promote it.

            Chris has no intention in stopping his musical career and really there are no reasons why he should. Go Chris, Go!

One of the most talked about celebrities in Hollywood is definitely Britney Spears. From the time when she started out her career until today, she drags behind her a line of fame. Every tabloid, every magazine, every show, every newscast, EVERYWHERE you have to come across this name. People just can’t seem to get enough of her. And she knows it fair well. It even seems that lately, she’s done more to acquire fame, not in the positive way that is.

She used to be famous for her singing but now the only thing that brings her fame is her behavior. It has gone in the decreasing way. Her personal life has lately received a lot of media attention and it all mainly started after her marriage to Kevin Federline. She’s been trashed and badly named but can we blame people for that? The only person responsible for treating her this way is Britney Spears herself.

            Spears’ break came when she released her first single “Baby, one more time” in 1998. This song made her a name in the music industry worldwide intantly. Following it came other great successes like Oops!… I Did It Again, Toxic and Gimme more.

            Spears declared in 1999 that she will remain a virgin until marriage. This has been questioned due to her apparently sexual relationship with singer Justin Timberlake. On January, 3 2004 she married her childhood friend Jason Allen Alexander; the marriage lasted only 55 hours! Cause: Spears was not wasn’t able to agreeing to marriage because she claimed that she did not know Alexander that much.

            In 2004, she marries Kevin Federline in a very private ceremony and they divorced in 2007. After the death of her aunt (apparently very close to her) on January 21, 2007, it’s the downfall for Britney. She goes on and off rehab facilities, shaves her head with electric clippers, attacks paparazzi with an umbrella… Throughout 2007, it’s chaos in Britney’s life. On top of that, she’s in a constant battle with her ex-husband for the custody of their two boys.

As a result of an order placed by her psychiatrist, she was taken to UCLA Medical Center to be put on a 5150 involuntary psychiatric hold. On February 1, 2008 , a restraining order was issued against Sam Lutfi, a prominent figure in Spears’s life.  She was released from hospital on February 6, after being diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder.

She has regained some visitation rights after seeking an agreement with Federline and his counsel.

Britney sure made a name for herself!

            Another one of these shows that you just cannot get enough of. Another one of these game shows where you have to use your brains and prove to the world just how smart you might be.

            ARE YOU SMARTER THAN A FIFTH GRADER definitely is a challenge to grown-ups. Contestants are asked questions from the 1^st to the 5^th grade over various topics. I’m sure that most of them think and tell themselves: “I’ve got this; this is going to be so easy”. Wrong. Not when you’re playing for a million dollars it’s not. The questions are in fact grade school levels but what matters is how much you remember from your time in school when you were a kid. And that will definitely depend on what kind of student you were back then. Most of the contestants are professionals like doctors, engineers, economist…pretty smart people right?

But just when they think it can’t get any worse, they get asked the trickiest questions. Questions they don’t even think have answers.

Luckily, contestants are able to take the test along with actual fifth graders. It is not recommended to cheat in school right? But in ARE YOU SMARTER THAN A FIFTH GRADER, you definitely can, up to a certain point that is. Can’t make it too easy after all, or the game won’t have an actual meaning.

Contestants get a peek (they can look at their classmate answer and decide if they want to go with it or not), a copy (they have to go with their classmate’s answer), or a save (which comes in handy in case they wrongfully answer a question).

The least amount of money you could leave with from the game is twenty-five thousnad dollars and the most 1 million!

Now the last step into the game is making it to the $500 000 question. If the contestant gets it right, they can choose to go for the million dollar question. IUf they get it right, they become a millionaire, if it’s the other way, they go all the way down to $25000. Now this is serious money we’re talking about!

So far, not a single person has one the million. The few that got to the million dollar question and tried to answer it all got it wrong. Life isn’t fun after grade school now is it? Who would have ever thought that these fifth grade questions would be worth millions today!

            Prior to the show, contestants are submitted to a polygraph exam. They are asked over 50 questions among which 21 are chosen. All they have to do is answer to them truthfully. Now this must sound pretty easy but some of the questions get pretty intense at each level. Now come on, people are playing for half a million dollars! Can’t let them get it too easy now can we? There has to be a catch right? Well yes, there is one. At any point in the game, if the contestant lies they automatically get cut from the game. They’re not yes, no, maybe questions. Tell the truth, that’s all you have to do. Now imagine that after revealing some very personal stuff on National Television, you answer wrongly to one question and one question is all it takes. Imagine that after putting it all out to the open, and missing one question, you end up with NO money at all! Now this is some very serious stuff!

            As they answer the questions, contestants come to a point where they have to ask themselves, “Do I want the money more than destroying my relationship with my family and friends”?

One of the most remembered contestants of THE MOMENT OF TRUTH is Lauren Cleri. After revealing that she had stolen from a job, not being in love with her husband anymore, preferring to give food to a dog rather than a homeless person, and feigning sleep to avoid her husband, you think she would make it to the end? Well no, she lost on a very simple question: “Do you think that you’re a good person?” She answered yes probably because she had remorse after all she’d done but the lie detector determined that she was lying. And now she had lost the money AND her husband. Just ended up with nothing.

When it comes to this game, it’s all about choosing your priorities. But honestly, sometimes some truths should remain hidden, remain untold.