Hollywood's false portrayal of foreign countries.

[Temprano26]

Most mainstream movies set in foreign countries have white Americans as their protagonists and it portrays other countries as scary or somehow worse than America. Movies set in the Middle East are always war-torn and have Americans getting kidnapped. Movies set in France usually have hilarious cultural clashes with French caricatures. But the point is most of them do not have Americans learning anything in the end. I watched Runner Runner and I wrote up a review of it.

I watched Runner Runner the other night and in the immortal words of Roger Ebert, I hated this movie. Hated hated hated hated hated this movie. Hated it.

I would never have cared about this movie if not for the fact that it is set in Costa Rica where I spent several months of my life working in a rural area up north making friends with people that didn't even speak my language. It was the best thing I ever did and so I hated this movie on a personal level because it was the exact opposite. A wealthy white kid goes to Costa Rica to exploit a legal loophole so he can gamble and pay his college tuition at Princeton. When he is there he stays with Ben Affleck and interacts with more Americans going to Costa Rica to gamble and act like jerks. He never learns anything about Costa Rica because he never interacts with the people there unless it is for business reasons. His only cultural experience is getting beat up in an alley by local gangsters. In short, it is about a wealthy white boy from Princeton that wants to get rich in Costa Rica but when things go bad he gets on a plane back home where he is arrested by the FBI and scary Tico policemen. And I would like to go on record and say when I was in Costa Rica I NEVER wanted to get back on a plane home. NEVER! Not even after I got assaulted that one night. No way in hell.

As a semi-wealthy gringo that loves to experience other cultures, this movie is nothing more than run-of-the-mill Hollywood garbage perpetuating the system. It is no wonder that foreigners see the pastiness of my skin color and assume that I am geographically and culturally illiterate. White guys are not all sheltered frat boys from Princeton just like not all black guys are from the projects.

Thanks Hollywood for making me throw up now.