I MAY HAVE MENTIONED A LONG time ago one among the many things that motivated me to lose weight was a pair of bell-bottomed pants. Seems strange when I see that statement down on print, but it was true. Bell bottoms became a fashion trend when I was in elementary school; everyone, both girls and boys, wore them. I was not able to because they did not come in my waist size. It was one of those life events that influenced me because it was then I realized my excess weight made me different from the other kids. It did not matter there were other kids bigger than me; I took it personally as if the pants manufacturing companies were picking on me. Because I desperately wanted a pair, I started dieting. Granted there were many other reasons such as being called a variety of names by the bullies of the school and the humiliation of the yearly weigh-in at the first gym class of the new school year that could have been used for motivation. All of this deeply affected me to the point I decided to do something about it and began to diet. I still remember how I would eat cottage cheese for breakfast and chicken bouillon soup with oyster crackers for lunch. I cut out desserts and after a few months maintaining this way of eating, I was rewarded by receiving a pair of blue bell-bottomed pants.      OUTSIDE INFLUENCES CERTAINLY CAN BE STRONG motivators as you can see. For me it was a sense of peer pressure and peer abuse that made me change my eating habits. However, I must say I have found motivation in my dreams and vision of what kind of life I wished to live. Teaching aerobics came about because of my love of music. I took that love and choreographed a variety of moves into a routine to each song I played in class. A friend of mine could not stand to be alone with herself so she quickly found someone and married them in a matter of a couple of months. This may not have been the healthiest choice to rectify the situation. The point being, she was determined to take matters into her own hands and force her way to a marriage. One never knows what is in store for them that triggers such a strong response; outside factors mixed in with one’s emotions can truly become a powerful event. Though it might be tough for some viewers to watch, this action thriller directed by John Woo (Red Cliff franchise, Face/Off) shows what a person can do when they experience a strong outside factor.      WHEN HIS SON WAS KILLED IN the crossfire between two rival gangs, the little boy’s father begins a path that will avenge his son’s needless death. With Joel Kinnaman (RoboCop, The Suicide Squad) as Brian Godlock, Catalina Sandino Moreno (A Most Violet Year, Marie Full of Grace) as Saya, Kid Cudi (Need for Speed, House Party) as Vassell, Harold Torres (Memory, Run Coyote Run-TV) as Playa and Vinny O’Brien (Stoker Hills, Jexi) as Anthony Barello Esq.; this violent and bloody film took me by surprise because there was no dialog in the movie. I appreciated the premise of the story, but I thought the execution of it was too slow paced. For the first half of the picture, I noticed I was getting bored. If one does not use dialog, then the actors must be able to communicate with their faces and that was the issue I had with the movie. Joel, I felt, did not effectively communicate with his facial expressions. The action when it finally came, was intense and as I said earlier, violent and bloody. There also was a sense of non-believability in several scenes. By the time the film ended, I was left with a sense of emptiness, no feelings either way which I bet I could convey without saying a word out loud.

2 stars