Friday, December 21, 2007

Do the right thing


Even though Do the Right Thing was poorly acted movie, the message it sent was a good one. Is Sal racist? or is he just stubborn and only wants "his kinda people", white famous Italians on the wall? The scene where Buggin' Out comes into Sal's and starts yelling and fussing about how there's no "brothers on the wall", i believe is a very important scene. Not only dose it illustrates how this whole conflict broke out. Personally i don't think Sal is a racist, just his son Pino is. Sal try's to help them, and goal is to provide them with the best pizza. He built this restaurant all by himself, so whats wrong with making it the was he wants it? The way it was built to be. I mean sure, most his costumers are of color, but its his place, and if they don't like the way he dose things, why do they come?

Over all i enjoyed this movie, despite the not to hot acting, and the annoying music played over and over again. It shows the message that everyone is racist towards each other, its not only one group of people its all of us. Its not right for people to live in this kind of world. If we all accepted each other for who we are, and the color of our skin there would be less hatred in this world. I would recommend this movie for others because not only dose it send a good message, it also illustrates how people used to, and still do live in not good neighbor hoods. It shows friend ship, and betrail. How people always don't make the correct choice or assumption, and how the law isn't always right.

Friday, November 30, 2007

Memento

All though i thought Memento was a very confusing movie, i found it to be fascinating. I have never seen a movie with this style, filming technique, or story line. Even thought i missed a few days and was totally confused for about half of the movie, i still understood the plot, and exactly what was going on because the director did a really good job of going in depth, and repeating the movie, so you understand bit by bit. I would highly recommend this movie, because it makes you think so much, but in the end, you don't know what to believe, so even after viewing the film, your still required to think about it to even decipher it.
The director also dose a good job of not letting you just assume whats going to happen, and be right about it. The transitioning between the black/ white scenes, and the color scenes really confused me, but eventually i caught on and the movie started making more and more sense. I have never seen a film filmed this way before, and at first i thought it would get supper annoying, but it didn't at all, it really just helped me figure out what was going on.

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

double indemnity


I personally think double indemnity is a very well write film noir, and fits along the lines of a film noir in many ways. The main women Phyllis meets Walter and together they come up with this plan to kill her husband after putting him under accident insurance. Phyllis is a much more powerful character than Walter is because shes able to make him fall so much in love with her that hes willing to do anything for her. It also takes place in L.A where many films of this type are filmed because it was cheaper. In the end of the movie it turns out Phyllis was just using Walter and was in love with another man so he killed her. This movie deals with murder and lies, just like all the other typical film noirs. This has become my favorite film noir i have ever seen just because of the characters, the story line, and all the lies and misperception.

Friday, November 2, 2007

Screwball


Bringing up Baby started off to be one of the most horrible, annoying movies i have ever seen. the comedy was worse than all the "scary movies", and Susan was the only character in a movie that was able to give me a horrible headache just from hearing her voice. i personally think the plot of the movie was just dumb, but i guess its a screwball comedy so i should just accept that in any screwball film the plot will be kind of dumb. I would say one of the only good things about this whole movie was David. he was very well acted and was the only character that i didn't want them to be punched in the face randomly throughout the whole film. i personally wouldn't recommend it, but maybe its because i don't exactly like screwball comedy's at all. but if you want to see a ridiculous story with a lot of reticulesacting, this just might be your movie.

Thursday, November 1, 2007

Star Wars




Star Was is considered a major breakthrough of its time. No movie prior to this has ever had such editing, special effects, and usage of the camera. But i would personally say that the most important, dramatic, and braking seen is when Luke finds out Darth Vader is actually his father. They use many different kinds of photography in just this scene alone. For example during the shot they use a few long shots, to show the location of the fight, but they also use a lot of close ups, and medium shots. But i personally think the most important shots in this scene is when Luke is looking up at Darth and he tells Luke that he is his father, which is a low angle looking up at Darth. And shortly after that it is a high angle looking down at Luke's reaction. The reason i picked this scene and only this seen to talk about is because i think its what made Star Wars such an amazing movies and honestly i think the line "Luke, i am your father" is one of the most famous movie lines of all time.

Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Haute tension: High Tension


High Tension is a sick and twisted movie, but at the same time its just simple amazing. It makes you think throughout the whole movie, but at the end it throws you for a huge twist. The movie starts out in the back country of France. Marie (the main character) is going out to her friends Alexia’s, new house in the middle of nowhere. While driving to Alexia’s house Marie is in the back seat sleeping, and we see a flash forward of her badly injured, walking in the woods, but we have no idea what that’s about yet. When they get to Alexia’s house its late, so everyone says there hellos and goes straight to bed. Right before Marie falls asleep she hears noises of Alexia’s family screaming, and when she goes and looks she sees an old man leaving Alexia’s parents room with blood all over him. She has not the slightest idea what to do.
After he’s finish killing the whole family, everyone besides Alexia, he takes her captive in the back of his truck, and some how Marie gets her way in the truck. The rest of the movie is just the old man driving down the high way, then stopping at a gas station where Marie tries to have someone call the cops, but it doesn’t work then the man and the truck get away from her so she steels the gas station tenets car, who was just killed by the old man. They end up in the woods, and the old man and Marie start to fight, and she finally kills him, but that’s not the end at all. There is a huge twist, which I’m not going to ruin because it’s the whole movie.
The movie has a lot of different angle shots, mostly in the house while he’s killing the family. But the director doesn’t use any long shots or extreme close-ups the whole film. The review written by Luke Thompson of Phoenix times, says this is a horrible movie and that the ending was the worst way of ending it. I totally disagree, and it almost bothers me that he said that. There’s is no other movie I can think of that has a ending like this, and it’s the type of movie that you can’t turn off, and keeps you on the edge of your seat. If you like horror, gore, and twist endings I highly recommend this movie, because you will get nothing less than all that.

my darling clementine


I'm the type of person that HATES westerns. I find them boring and not entertaining at all. My Darling Clementine kind of fell along these lines also. I didn't like it because it was so boring and really predictable. I wouldn't mind if i didn't ever see this movie again. The filming itself was well done, but the plot and characters were just boring.

Wednesday, October 3, 2007

Citizen Kane...not so much.


Personally, i did not like this movie at all. I think its a VERY over ratted film, and could of had many things changed about it to make it better. Some of the editing was very questionable, along with the choice of actors. Who every played Susanne is by far the most annoying person with the most annoying voice i have ever heard in an old time film. The story line was also a bit sketchy. And honestly Rosebud? what, i though that was just dumb and didn't explain Kane at all.

Requiem For a Dream


Some people may think that all movies about drugs are the same, they show one person, going through this addiction and can't do anything about it blahblah, but the movie Requiem For a Dream by Darren Aronofsky, not only shows the physical problems, he shows it all. He manages to show the feelings, the love, hate, desire, and willingness these people have for the drugs they believe they need to survive. This movie fallows four major characters, Harry Goldfarb, Harry’s mother Sara Goldfarb, Harry’s girlfriend Marion Silver, and Harry’s best friend Tyrone C. Love. You fallow Harry, Marion, and Tyrones "get rich fast" scream by selling drugs, when really what there is doing is getting further and further into addiction. Aronofsky is able not only to show you the physical aspect of these characters addictions, but also the mental addictions.

The film starts out in Sara Goldfarbs apartment, where Harry once again is there steeling his mothers TV so he can pawn the TV and get money for his next fix. There's nothing she can do to stop Harry, he’s her only child, her little baby, and just wants him to be happy. after Sara goes gets her TV back from the pawn shop she gets a call on the telephone from a TV station saying she’s gonna be on TV! She’s so excited she goes and pulls her Red Dress out of the closet, the one she wore to Harry’s graduation (that she looked so good in) but doesn’t fit, and decides to go to the doctor so she can lose weight so she can fit into her red dress. Soon enough after getting these diet pills from her doctor (which were actually uppers) she starts to have problems with addiction of her own, and doesn’t even see what’s happening to her son. Aronofsky is able to show the pain these characters are going through, he shows you how hard it is to fight addiction, with an amazing artistic visuals all throughout the movie.

The review done by Roger Ebert (Chicago sun-times), dose an amazing job in my opinion explaining what is so amazing about this movie. He talks about the characters and what they are going through so well. I also enjoy this review because not only dose he talk about the movie its self, but all the ways Aronofsky uses editing, and camera to make this movie even more spectacular. He also gives you a good description of the movie, so you know just from reading the begging of the review what the movies going to be about.

I HIGHLY recommend this movie for people to see, unless you don’t like movies that go into grate detail about drug usage, and that is quit graphic. It shows the trued side to addiction and drugs, and shows the characters perspective of what life really is, but isn’t at the same time. go out and rent this movie, they have it at blockbuster, and i highly doubt that you will regret spending that 3.99 to see it.

we found nemo!


Pixar has come out with their fair share of decent movies, but I would personally say Finding Nemo is by far the best one out there. Not only does the film have amazing editing and animation, it still uses a variety of camera angles, lighting, and sound to its advantages.
Finding Nemo is about a little fish named Nemo, and his father Marlin. Marlin is very protective of Nemo because Nemo is the only child he has left after his wife and all their eggs were eaten by a much larger fish (and from the accident nemo has a smaller fin on one side, they call it his "lucky fin"). Marlin doesn’t want to let Nemo go to school because he thinks Nemo isn’t ready for it, but he finally caves in and lets Nemo go. Nemo and his class go out to the reef on their first day, and Marlin finds out, freaks and goes to get Nemo. Nemo refuses to go home with his father because his father has embarrassed him in front of all his friends. So Nemo rebels and swims out into open water to touch the "butt" (boat) to prove to his father, and all his new friends that he can do everything everyone else can. But unfortunately he gets caught by a diver, and brought back to a dentist’s office fish tank.
The rest of the movie is the journey Marlin and his friend Dory (whom he meets during his journeys) have trying to find nemo and bring him back home. Throughout the whole movie they use very high tech, and actual animation of deep-sea life, but yet still throw in some old ways to edit the film, such as lighting and camera angles. Most of the film is well lighted, but dark at night so you can tell which is which, just by the coloration of the ocean. They also use a lot of high angle shots when Marlin is feeling down and about ready to give up, and in parts where he’s being threatened by other animals. This movie does a particularly good job on making everything in the ocean they created seem very realistic (which they did mostly by lighting and movement).
Overall this was a very well done movie, with a good story, great animation, and a good lesson to be learned. It is very appropriate for children of all ages, and even parents will find this movie entertaining and "cute". I highly recommend you rent and watch this movie if you haven't already seen it.