Today we had the opportunity to chat with motivational speaker James Lin of Sajeflow! By Eleanor Klein.
Where do you live now?
I live in Rancho Santa Fe in San Diego, California. I find great beauty and energy in San Diego as a place where I can co-create content to share with people to empower them to their greatness
How did you get into inspirational speaking?
I was inspired at Date with Destiny, a Tony Robbins event where I discovered my purpose in life is to help people realize their purpose and their greatness
What was your first gig?
My first gig was at a speaking event in Salt Lake City where I spoke in at a transformational inspiration event, it was amazing As I realized that it doesn’t matter how you start, its about getting started and improving everyday in everyway
What is your most memorable career moment?
One of my most memorable career moment was hosting a retreat in Costa Rica with a small private elite group of entrepreneurs where we went through 7 days of powerful inspiration shifts in identity transformation where people really took ownership of themselves and their relationship
Who are some of your favorite inspirational speakers?
I am privileged to learn from one of the best speakers of our generation, Tony Robbins, his outcome of feeding 1 billion meals really inspires me and has inspired me to rise above any self-doubt to self people all over the world
Who is your icon?
I am so grateful to learn from my mentor Tony Robbins who has helped people all around the world for over 43 years of his life, they say that you can stand on the shoulder of giants, I learn so much from him and dedicate my life to empowering people to their greatness
How would you describe your personal style?
I believe when you tap into your inner FLOW you can reach your full human potential by tapping into your 7 identities and realizing that your true potential comes from a collective flow within you, you can channel your flow state to peak performance through the different all-stars within.
Nobody knows quite when it started. The Americans blame the Russians and the Russians blame the Americans, all we know is that a genetic experiment to create super soldiers went wrong, creating a race of pig-human hybrids that soon became the dominating race on Earth.
All that’s left to defend the human race is a small band of heroes. Among them is Rob Justice (Timur Turisbekov) and his sister, Raksha (Doroteya Toleva) who have a somewhat unusual relationship. Although in this post-apocalyptic wasteland nobody cares until all the pigs are dead.
Bullets of Justice is a parody of dystopian science fiction action movies with its tongue firmly placed in its cheek. Directed by Valeri Milev and co-written by Timur Turisbekov, Bullets of Justice is set in a world where men speak with deep, gravelly voices and have traumatic backstories and women are strong and courageous and just happen to have enormous fake breasts.
There’s nothing in Bullets of Justice that can be taken seriously and it knows it all too well.
There’s plenty to laugh at although not all of the jokes may work as well as others, but ultimately Bullets of Justice is as enjoyable to those who love a cheesy action movie as it is for those who think the genre is all very silly. Turisbekov is good in the lead, although there is something about his casting which is a little misplaced, although thankfully this may just be another level of self-awareness.
A small, but knowing cameo from Danny Trejo also tops the film off nicely as Trejo’s become a staple for action movies over the years and makes sure that the audience knows exactly what they’re getting. Although for those who don’t really understand the joke, there are long periods of time during the movie that still deliver plenty of blood, gratuitous nudity and action.
Toleva also plays her part well. The typically male written female action heroine (written as a man, but played by a woman) isn’t exactly subtle commentary what with Raksha’s prominent moustache, but it gets the point across. Also look out for a footballing cameo, although it’s not who you think it is.
David Leitch, Fall Guy, Black Widow: Weekly Round Up – So, as you might have come to expect at this point, we’ve got some more delays to go over this week. It seems that Coronavirus is in no way slowing down, and the studios are stilly reluctant to release their mega-budget blockbusters in theatres during the period when audiences are reluctant to go see them. One wonder if they toned down the budgets a little they might not have to worry to much about box office numbers, but oh well.
Of course, Black Widow’s bump means that a load of the subsequent planned Marvel outings have also all been shifted, so now the likes of The Eternals and Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings have all be pushed back too.
It’s not all doom and gloom though, as even though the studios can’t seem to figure out what to do about releasing their movies they’re still busy greenlighting and pushing ahead with new projects.
One such project announced this week is an intriguing untitled action movie from director David Leitch, who was behind the excellent Atomic Blonde (the fact that so many of you didn’t go see this movie still pisses me off no end, by the way), the hilarious Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw, and the alright Deadpool 2. Leitch, before he turned his hand to directing, was actually a stuntman, which perhaps makes him the ideal person to helm this new project, which will reportedly going to focus on a stuntman itself.
Gosling, of course, has played a stuntman previously, once in Drive and once in The Place Beyond the Pines.
And while we’re on the subjects of stunts, Tom Cruise has revamped his career by constantly pushing the boundaries of what stunt work is possible, and it would see he is in absolutely no rush to slow down. We learned in May, of course, that Cruise intends to take his crazy filmmaking skills to the next level at some point in the not too distant future by heading to space to shoot a movie.
The mission will be piloted by Commander Michael Lopez-Alegria and will take place is October of 2021. Cruise will be aboard the Space X Crew Dragon Axiom Tourist Flight along with the project’s director, Doug Liman. Liman is no stranger to working with Cruise, of course, as the pair made both Edge of Tomorrow and American Made together so, on the basis of those two movies, this could be a pretty decent outing, and more than its gimmicky space mission might suggests.
Finally, this week we need to talk about Father of the Bride. Originally a 1950 film starring Elizabeth Taylor and Spencer Tracy, it’s the 1991 remake starring Steve Martin that is most likely the version of the film you’ve seen or heard of. That movie was popular enough to spawn a sequel, and this week Netflix released the trailer for a special titled Father of the Bride 3(ish), which will apparently reunite Martin with his co-star Diane Keaton.
But, if that wasn’t enough Father of the Bride news for you, this week we also learned that Warner Bros. are planning to reboot the franchise, with screenwriter Matt Lopez taking on the task of producing the script. Lopez was reportedly influence by his own “cross-cultural nuptials” and the film will focus on a Cuban-American family as a result.
Heather (Michelle Rose) and Mark (Kurt Yue) are a couple coping with the loss of their daughter. Their first Christmas will be difficult without her, but they intend to make the best of things, although it’s clear that they’ve drifted apart.
Then in the middle of the night they find a man has broken into their house, at first the man offers them $10,000 to let him go, but after he pulls a gun on them, Heather sees no choice but to kill him. Overcome with the shock and trauma of ending a life, Heather wants to call the police immediately. However, Mark proposes that they take an hour to search the house so that they can possibly find the $10,000 prize that their intruder was offering.
Little do they realise that their wannabe assailant has friends that are after the prize as well.
By Night’s End is a home invasion action thriller co-written and directed by Walker Whited. A cross between Die Hard and Home Alone, the film starts out as cat and mouse thriller. However, while Mark and Heather get closer during their high concept situation, the audience learns that Heather’s past as an Iraq veteran may come in handy as she has a particular set of skills.
What follows becomes more like a full-blown action thriller as it progresses and by the final act there’s an indication the movie may only exist to showcase Rose’s expertise as a stunt performer. By Night’s End is still enjoyable though, no matter how many action movie cliches may get thrown at the audience, although those looking for something more emotionally involving may be left disappointed.
However, for fans of the genre that knowingly throws back to its action influences there’s plenty to enjoy, particularly from the flamboyantly dressed villain ironically named Moody (Michael Aaron Milligan) who gives a suitably flamboyant performance.
By Night’s End may not be all that original despite its initial premise, but it’s fun and executed well enough to switch off your brain for 85 minutes. Who knows, there may even be a sequel set in an airport.
Single mother Celeste Blackwood and her soulmate Stella Mansell are two friends living in London, each pursuing their respective artistic careers as a poet and actress. Over time their dreams become ever more elusive.
Writer/director Greta Bellamacina’s feature debut shows a warm spirit and has, at its core, a lot of heart. However, it is let down in a number of ways. For example, in the rather signposted expositional moments where the various relationship dynamics between Celeste and her family and friends are explored, these scenes often appear stagey and forced, suffering from clunky acting and stodgy dialogue. In doing so it reduces them to basic character stereotypes, simply servicing the plot, as opposed to more fully-rounded individuals whose lives we are genuinely interested in following.
The scenes which work best are the ones which play on the film’s more humorous moments, well observed comic situations based around awkwardness and absurdity, with desperation and discomfort providing the comedy in a satisfyingly deadpan, toe-curling manner. Her meeting with a publishing agent; Stella’s acting audition; a disastrous restaurant date etc. It’s the well observed subtle mannerisms and nuance which make the comedy work.
Bellamacina herself plays Celeste, the single mother with aspirations of having her poetry published, and who I felt could have shown a bit more grit and determination in her precarious hand to mouth lifestyle.
More appealing was her somewhat put-upon friend Stella, played by Sadie Brown, who brought credibility to the character, making her very likeable and easy to watch. A happy-go-lucky extrovert, there was no side to her, and it was through this openness that we got to see her sensitive side, which was quite delightful.
Indeed, perhaps the most tender of the narrative’s numerous romantic dealings was the unseen online relationship between Stella and her ‘mystery man’ at the other end of her upgraded ‘serious wi-fi connection’ (a running gag mirroring their wireless courtship). Their involvement, developed and nurtured over time and distance, holds the same amount of feeling, hope and excitement as any real life romance would have, with a poignant touch of desperation as well.
Similarly the best performances come out during the scenes of cringe-worthy dry comedy previously mentioned. A single look, a glance or a well timed pause, these these things rang true more than an overwritten or poorly delivered line. Bellamacina paces these scenes with more confidence and naturalism, which is where her real strength clearly lies, creating embarrassing situations we can all relate to.
Sadly the rest of the film has a tendency to dip in between these moments, which are few and far between. The overall tone feels noncommittal, not quite managing to integrate the comedy with straight drama. Frustratingly it leaves us hanging somewhere in the middle.
