The change-up

THE CHANGE-UP

“The change-up” is an American comedy film produced in 2011. Mitch (Ryan Reynolds) and Dave (Jason Bateman) have been best friends since they left the school. They have grown up together, but now their lives are very different from each other.

Mitch is a freewheeling single man who doesn’t have any obligations. He works as an actor once a week, so he has a lot of freetime which he usually spends meeting beautiful women. Whereas, Dave is a respectable lawyer, he is married with Jamie  (Leslie Mann) and they have three kids. He spends all the day at work and when he finally arrives at home, he has to take care of the children.

One night, after getting drunk, Mitch and Dave talk about their lifestyles, and both wish that they had each other’s life while they are in front of a magic fountain. Surprisingly the desire becomes real: next morning they wake up in their friend’s body. The guys return where the fountain was to try to recuperate their original lives. However, the fountain has been removed, so they are forced to take their partner’s life. Dave and Mitch early discover that his friend’s life isn’t as fantastic as they had thought. Mitch doesn’t know anything about laws, so Dave’s boss is disappointed with him. He has to go to his daughter’s ballet play and  he also has to wake up at midnight when the babies cry. On the other hand, Dave discovers that Mitch takes part in a porno film. Finally, the guys find the fountain again and they wish that they came back to their own lives. This way Mitch and Dave learn to not complain about their lives.

In my opinion this film is quite amusing, although the plot is a bit superficial and for that reason the film is easy to understand. The characters are funny, despite some exaggerations. But.. What could you expect? It is a comedy! They say some silly things that make you laugh, that’s all. However, this is the objective! I have enjoyed the film and I believe that it would be a great idea to watch it with friends to have a good time together.

Exercises to practice future:
http://esl.about.com/library/quiz/blgrquiz_futureforms.htm
http://www.englishexercises.org/makeagame/viewgame.asp?id=4180
http://www.englisch-hilfen.de/en/exercises/tenses/future.htm
http://www.englisch-hilfen.de/en/exercises/tenses/future2.htm
http://www.englisch-hilfen.de/en/exercises/tenses/will_going_to_future.htm
http://www.ego4u.com/en/cram-up/grammar/future-mix/exercises
http://www.englishpage.com/verbpage/verbs24.htm
http://english.lingolia.com/en/grammar/tenses-comparison/future-tenses/exercises
http://www.learnenglishfeelgood.com/mixed-future-tenses2.html

12 years a slave

12 YEARS A SLAVE 

Directed by Steve McQueen, 2013

All began in 1841, in Saratoga Springs, New York, where a black family lived free and without problem. She cooked for other people and he (Salomon Northup) worked in the world of spectacle playing the violin; he was also a carpenter.

One day, two people propose to Salomon to work in a circus playing the violin, but it all ends really badly and they sell him. Salomon Northup passed from being a free man to becoming a slave.

He is bought by Ford, a man proprietary of a plantation, where there Platt (the name that Northup has as a slave) have a lot of conflicts with Tibeats (the captain of the plantation) and so he ends up given to Edwin Epps, a proprietary of a plantation of cotton. In this place, he meets Patsey, a young girl that picks up the more cotton everyday but never receives nothing in change.

In the other hand, Platt meets a Canadian man that things that all the people must be free and the black people must be the same rights that the white people. Platt requests him then to send a letter to his family so that they can send the documents that say that he is free.

Finally, he comes back at home, and knows the husband of his daughter and his grandson.

I think that it’s a realistic dramatic film because it reflects all the bad things that the black people had to live. And how a free man with a good life, passed to be a slave without rights to serve a white man, having to work without rest for this person.

Of course, this film has a good actors that reflects very good the situation that the black people had to live. It has a detailed photography that transmits to the viewer the abuse (physically and pshicology) the black people suffer, as well as the conditions that they have to bear compared to the proprietaries.