Review of RUSH HOUR 3

RUSH HOUR 3 - STORY: An American cop and a Chinese cop team up to recover a list of those in a hidden secret society, to get revenge for the shooting of a Chinese Ambassador and to save the life of the Ambassador's teenage daughter.
RUSH HOUR 3 - MESSAGE: "Cover the back" of teammates. Persistence and skill win the day. Keep your word. Those with good intentions kick the butt of those with evil ones.
RUSH HOUR 3 - WIN: A good example of how lacking the social graces gets one in trouble. Promotes teamwork and respect for other cultures. Promotes use of skill. Promotes celebration of triumph.
RUSH HOUR 3 - LOSE: Promotes saying negative things about groups of people. Revenge is a knee-jerk reaction to opposition, rather than the studied, calmer approach of true justice, which removes harmful people from society. Promotes women as sex objects. Promotes alcohol. Promotes violence to handle bad guys (which may be necessary, but other means are not attempted.) Promotes doing what one feels like despite how it affects others. Promotes blaming others rather than taking responsibility (although it does this (and some of the other things above) in an exagerrated way so that the audience sees that the blame is false, the prejudice unfounded, etc.)
RUSH HOUR 3 - EFFECT ON ME: I've been studying recently the difference between actively seeking understanding of others on the team versus being a rebel, so it was gratifying to see an example of rebel (the American cop/the bad guys) versus a team player (the Chinese cop.)
Sincerely,
Becky Mate
Script Consultant
www.virtueinthearts.com

Review of STARDUST

STARDUST - STORY: A young man tries to buy love by retrieving a fallen star, but along the way finds his true love and his rightful place in the world.
STARDUST - MESSAGE: Love is given freely with no strings attached. Persistence, doing the right thing and honesty win the day. Power is not for the greedy, the vain, the murderous or the jealous. Slavery and entrapment are a bad thing.
STARDUST - WIN: Spiritual ability was displayed. Good virtues won in the end and bad intentions made for a bad end to the bad guys. It promoted life after death. Emotions of characters were consistent with their actions. Good works were rewarded. Alcohol to excess was a trait of the bad guys. Family was important to the hero and his mother and father. A star watches down on the activities of earth from a remote viewpoint -- an impartial world view not often contemplated in films.
STARDUST - LOSE: A one night stand at the beginning of the movie. The witches used their magic for evil, yet in reality one's power is only effective for good.
STARDUST - EFFECT ON ME: It was fun exercising my imagination with the unseen-before character of a star personified. The satisfying ending of order restored was pleasant. It made me want to be more persistent in getting to my goals despite obstacles and made me want to be more selfless than selfish.
Sincerely,
Becky Mate
Script Consultant
www.virtueinthearts.com