Secretariat: a movie on a secretary?? ^.~

A friend and I went to see a free screening of Secretariat yesterday. Free! Surprisingly, not that many people were there - well okay, it's not that surprising because it wasn't that well promoted...not like the Step Up 3d screening I went to. Also, we managed to bump into a couple friends, which was cool. I didn't end up inviting them like I did everyone else (who bailed) because I thought it was too far of a drive for them on a weekday...I guess not? Meh. I'll invite them next time XD.

Honestly, coming to the screening I had no idea what it was about. Okay, that's a lie, I knew it was about a horse (I saw the poster after all), but other than that - not a clue. My thought process was: free movie, going to go, take time to look it up? Nah, I'll pass.

Secretariat is the life story of a racing horse and its owner...and it's a Disney movie. That basically sums it up in one sentence XD.

I liked that I got the 60's vibe almost from the start from the coloring, clothing, cars...they did that old school filmy sorta look. Apparently I'm really out of it (or wasn't paying too much attention at the beginning) because they started off the film with the time and place, so when I turned to my friend and whispered 'Do you think this is set in the 60's?' her reply was 'Yeah, it said on the bottom like 2 minutes ago' >.> Whoops.

The cinematography was really well done, for the most part. The shots of the horse's hoof hitting the track and the super high definition of the dirt clumps flying were magnificent. Then there were the not so good shots, like that flashback scenes, and one HUGE glaring error; the funeral rain scene DIDN'T HAVE ANY RAIN! I'm sorry, they're all holding umbrellas and looking 'concerned' that people will get wet, the sound effects have LOTS of raindrops hitting (not even just sprinkling) and they couldn't be bothered to get the ground or even the tops of the umbrellas wet and dripping a bit? epic FAIL.

Side Note: Why does every funeral scene have to be set on a rainy day? Yes yes, it's setting the mood, depressing and in place of people crying, the sky is crying. But really...they should have just made it foggy and sprinkly-like *sigh*

Anyway, Diane Lane was overall pretty decent as the lead actress. There were a couple times when her facial expression seemed to take on a life on its own...I mean, it's good to show range, but there's something called overdoing it.

During the entire movie, I was wondering whether the jockey was a real jockey, or just an actor. I said real (he's super short, and he didn't have all that many talking/acting scenes), my friends thought actor and stunt double. I win...I can't believe I remembered to look it up too ^.^

It's about a B for the movie and how I came out feeling, but a D for cliched and oh-so-predictable, but that's Disney. Overall, I liked it...it was a feel-good happy movie, and even while being predictable, the race scenes were still very tense and exciting. Recommended for people who like movies of the underdog, true stories, and/or just want to be happy afterwords.