The Bling Ring [DVD] [2013]

Titles are from 'The Secret' Book of Nonsense!Emma who? Sofia who? I ask you, who're they when they’re at home?The Bling Ring Teens were a group of friends who are...(to quote Judge Judy's words) - they're - "not fully cooked" says Judge Judy.Some Reviews, Reviewers - which we assume are adults and/or parents - they're not that far away from committing the same offence - 'virtually' - the new crime type category of 'Internet Troll'.Their half-baked reactions to a movie - it’s all Emma this and Sophia that, blah blah blah. It's borderline Internet Trolling which is a criminal offence in itself. The point of the movie is not the crime committed by The Bling Ring Teens, but it’s our fascination with and love of high profile figures. Our minds are fixated on 'what the papers say' about the celebs, the great stars of yesteryear, the footballers, the movies, the movie central casting and production team, the 'box office' sales, the 'viewing' figures and polls in the event of a general election, the WAGs - (Wives and Girlfriends) - and the politicians. Our minds are so fixated, would we even notice when we've crossed that 'thin line' between admiration, criticism, hate, love, obsession, stalking and being an Internet Troll?In the Ava DuVernay documentary '13th' or 'Thirteenth' - (depending on which 'artwork' label you are looking at).'Thirteenth' looks at the relationship between the 'conditional' Thirteenth Amendment of the American Constitution in which 25% of the 'African-American' population - i.e 1 in 4 African-Americans, are or have been 'incarcerated'. I have no doubt that if the Bling Ring Teens were Black teenagers, the key to their prison cells would have been thrown away.I Am therefore unsympathetic to any of issues raised by the reality of the movie.2. Have A Magical DayFrom the movie, I ‘did not’ get the impression that these Bling Ring Teens were ‘Wannabes’. They did what they did for fun, to memorialise the experience. It’s almost like it was a child’s birthday party, or a day trip to the museum or a theme park - situations where you’d take pictures standing beside a monumental background and share with your friends at a later date. At the end of the day you get to go home with something from 'the gift shop', or a Paris Hilton 'party bag'. It didn’t matter to them whether 'the gift' was borrowed, bought or stolen, it was just a 'goody bag' to go home with and marvel at when you got home, just the same as we do when we go to the theatre. We buy the booklet/programme and discuss our evening on the way home and marvel at the information we've taken away with us. It's the 'feel good factor'.3. Works Like MagicMost film makers have an agenda they want to share with the viewer, whether it's a bias view, a 'fair's fair' policy or lateral thinking.The film may come across as boring, because it may not be apparent on Sofia Coppola's agenda on making this movie.I suspect the 'hidden' agenda is to point out that this crime was committed by 'a group' of 'rich kids, a crime which breached security measures, a crime which could have had different results had the 'terrorism' element been involved or 'gang' crime been implemented.4. The Magic Of The Money MagnetMoney hungry teens are not as stupid as you think - we are the stupid ones. We fight wars that don’t concern us, whilst our freedom and liberty is being siphoned off and sold to the highest bidder - usually the elite banks, bankers and oil merchants. We believed in systems that said work until your 60/65. We believed in systems that allowed us to put our money into a pension fund and collect it when when retire. We believed in systems that insisted that we pay our taxes to build a better nation. Now it’s ‘work till you drop’ because your country is in debt. We've mismanaged your taxes and misappropriated the pension fund.Money hungry teens have figured out much sooner than we did that it’s the monetary system that reigns supreme, not god and not the act of being good. Celebrity status is just a quicker way and a quicker means to an end - if you can get there. Hence why a female member of The Bling Ring decided to cash in or capitalise on notoriety fame - it’s better than nothing. She will also get access to more facilities than the honest, hard working working man. Authorities cannot and do not confiscate all the wealth accumulated by criminals, because the criminal element of influence and money is needed for investments that attempt to pay back your country's debt.5. Magically Transform Mistakes Into BlessingsCelebrities should give time to open their house up to the general public - it would satisfy our curiosity and raise their profile. It may even reduce 'the risk' of future group formations of 'Bling Ring' 'Wannabe's' attempting to burglarise other celebs. Maybe that's why the security of the celebs targeted in this movie was so lapse - it was an open invitation to view their property - if you dare - but it got outta hand when The Bling Ring Teens took things.If the Queen of England can do it - open her house to the general public and have garden parties once-a-year, so should the celebs.Heritage Open Days In England - which usually open during September and October, celebrate architecture and culture, by allowing visitors free access to historical buildings and landmarks that are either not usually open to the public, or would normally charge an entrance fee.We shouldn't have to wait for the death of a hero before a museum is erected in honour of the name, just for us to get a glimpse into a great life that was.6. Magic FootstepsParents on the verge of career/job changes, please think seriously about making those changes and placing their child in another school in mid term. It’s a traumatic event for the child. But, in fairness to all the parents concerned, can you imagine the horror those parents went through, having their privacy invaded by heavy footed police and media people turn up on your doorstep, more or less holding you a prisoner in your own house.It’s unbelievable what some kids put their parents through though.7. The Magic IngredientsIt’s much easier to label The Bling Ring Teens as ‘Wannabe’s' because we now concede the concept of this behaviour. Society can therefore ‘pass the buck’ to the psychology department for psychoanalysis or psycho-therapy. We don’t have to address or face any other educational or social issues where the welfare of group dynamics failed. In other words, politicians can continue to heavily fund/subsidise the academic disciplines of psychology, whilst other research studies, such as 'blood group diets' - i.e. the relationship between what you eat, your blood group, general health & mental status gets 0 funding for more research. How do we know that the Bling Ring Teens were not 'eating food' that caused a change in their chemical balance?No! just call them 'Wannabe's', it makes life so much simpler to explain.Thank You!

Good film but not a feel good film!

Good

'The Bling Ring' is based on the true events of the Hollywood Burglaries that took place between 2008 and 2009 in which a group of teenagers broke into the homes of celebrities in LA and stole thousands of dollars worth of clothes and jewellery. This film allowed use to gain an insight into what happened and told the events as accurately as they could. It was interesting and amusing enough especially since some of the homes are the real-life homes of the celebrities (Paris Hiltons house in the film is her actual house!). I do feel the film lacked enough material as just watching the group braking into houses became too repetitive after a while. The ending also felt rushed as I would have liked to see the trial inside the court, instead we just see the group enter and then leave. Overall, an interesting film about the crime but there wasn't enough material and the trial should have been shown.

Nothing happens. A group of characterless human shaped lifeforms rob a house (which, despite being owned by a rich person, has zero alarms or security) and then drunk/drug drive. Then they do it again. And then about five more times in a row. It's like it's all filler. There's a scene where the bloke smokes crack and stands up and sits down repeatedly sort of dancing that legitimately lasts nearly a minute. Nothing in this films serves to advance the plot because there isn't one. Speaking of things that are absent from this film, the script appears to have been a one sentence document that read "speak like an LA type faux cool trendy emotionless robot" because all anyone says is "that's so ill" and "you look hot" with such a lack of effort. Calking it wooden would be an insult to wood.Maybe it's unfair to judge a film that I didn't even watch all the way to the end, but I think the fact that I could not bear to watch a single second more speaks volumes.

When first hearing about this movie with Emma Watson being in it, I ordered the DVD. To my initial disappointment, I had ordered the original version of this film - without Emma Watson (as the new version had not even been released yet). I watched it anyway and now, that I also watched the remake of it, featuring Emma Watson, I have to say that the remake is disappointing, flat, leaves many things unexplained that come out better in the original version.If you want to see Emma Watson on film: buy this one or any other movie of hers. If you want to see the Bling Ring: buy the original version.This version was so bad, I fast played the last bit of it to get it over with.

I am in no way a fan of Sofia Coppola movies but bling ring stands out as a very fresh and stylish idea for a movie and its pulled off very well, the story is really well done and is mostly based on true events, its well paced and keeps you interested throughout, the cast is amazing, all the girls are fantastic in their roles and very sexy, especially Emma Watson, its great to see her shake harry potter and do more adult stuff, this is a very enjoyable movie and really worth checking out for anyone, there are some good features on the disc covering the details about the true events that the movie was inspired by and a personal interview with Paris Hilton who was one of the main victims, the Blu-ray picture quality is not much better than DVD, one of the best and most interesting film releases of the year though!!!