To follow up last week's blog on The Godfather I figured that I might as well as review the sequel right afterwards, so today's review is The Godfather Part 2. Like I mentioned last week I have never seen these movies so all I knew about this one is that it is always on "the best sequels of all time" lists. Oh, and I also know according to almost everyone the third one is stupid. Anyways, lets get on with the review.
As I mentioned before the first Godfather has had a huge influence on culture and I think the same can be said for this movie. These two movies work so well together that I think it would be difficult to separate the impact of each movie. The one thing this movie has offered us though it one of the best sequels in film history. Now not all sequels are great in fact most aren't:
I know some of you might not agree with my list and to you I say, my opinion is more important so keep your comments in your pocket. This film not only is one of the best sequels ever but also cleaned up at the Academy awards. It won six Oscars for: Best Writing, Best Picture, Best Music, Best Director, Best Art Direction, and Best Actor in a Supporting Role (De Niro); as well as being nominated for five other awards.
Now it is time for everyone's favorite part.... the internet ratings!!!!!
IMDB = 9 out of 10
Rotten Tomatoes (Critic Rating) = 98%
Rotten Tomatoes (Audience Rating) = 96%
So despite many people feeling this sequel surpasses the first movie the internet rating are all slightly lower. I wish the internet could make up its mind.
Now it is time for my favorite part.... my own review!!!! Acting once again was fantastic. Though I was sad that characters like Tom were in it a lot less. I really enjoyed his character in the first one and just would have liked to see this character built upon more. Diane Keaton returned as Kay and though her acting was good, man do I hate her character, but I feel that the character is supposed to stir up emotions in us, it is one of those characters that, depending on how you view the morals of other characters, is either likeable or you hate her. The bad guy in this film was fine but the character was not anything spectacular. There is also a character named Frankie, the actor was nominated for an award and when I saw that I didn't even know who the character was. You see, I am really bad with names when there are a lot of characters so some of the names slip through the cracks of my brain. Anyways, he did a good job and his character was good as well. Now for the Corleone Family we have Talia Shire, playing Connie, who is not only annoying but barely in this movie. Yet, she was nominated for an Oscar! How? How does this happen? She was only in it for ten minutes total yet it was Oscar worthy:
I hope you liked that. She was in like 4 scenes total! This happened a few years ago when Tilda Swinton won an Oscar for Michael Clayton when she was hardly in it! She beat out the little girl from Atonement! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! Also Fredo was in this movie a lot more and he did a great job. His character I felt is similar to Kay where you choose sides and you either sympathize with them or hate them. I love when movies and characters make you do this. Now we have Robert De Niro. He was fantastic. I really enjoyed his story arc, his character, and the acting. Oh, also since he wasn't in the last one I guess I should do a then and now picture. Al Pacino once again plays Michael and does a great job showing the depth and complexity of the character. The character is extremely well written and Al does a great job making the character seem real. Before I move on I want to also mention all the little characters in this movie who just all are great and are acted very well. My personal favorite being some awesome black hat wearing, killing guy. I think it shows a lot when you are sad that one of these little characters dies and you know you won't be seeing them the rest of the movie.
As I talk about the story of the movie I need to first warn people that you will have to read in parts of this movie. I know, why make us read, we are watching a movie not reading a book. The story has tons of symbolism and moves at a very quick pace which helps this movie, which is over three hours, feel much shorter. The movie may be hard to follow since they change location and time periods with out much of a warning but it isn't too difficult. The story was great and it follows Michael as he deals with the hardships of being in charge and we see how it is hard to hold to one's morals in that situation. While watching it all I could think of was how I wish the Star Wars prequels had a more rise and fall or morality story, like this, with Anakin rather then his just being a little &%^#. I also really enjoyed the beginning of the movie and seeing the immigration of Vito to America. The script once again was fantastic and really helped the story and characters seem real. As always I did learn some thing from the movie:
#1: My high school band does funnerals
#2: Cubans like to riot
#3: Italian brothers show love in weird ways
Seriously though, I have never done this to my brother:
The music was once again very good and much like the last movie nothing stood out either good or bad with the special effects. I did really enjoy the parts of the movie in Miami because the look and feel of them was very cool and reminded me a ton of GTA3:Vice City, which I am not sure if that is more a complement to the movie or the game... oh well.
In conclusion, I have to agree with most people out there and say I like this movie better then the first one. It had two great stories that paralleled each other very well and afterwards my mom, my girlfriend, and I all had great conversations about the differences between Michael and Vito. I really enjoyed both these movies and this movie a little more. This movie gets an A+
Friday, December 30, 2011
Tuesday, December 27, 2011
#2: The Godfather
So it is the Christmas season and instead of putting on a fire and snuggling up to watch some Christmas movie we decided to watch The Godfather. Now if you are like my families and friends you might find it weird that I have never seen this movie, if you don't think it's weird then I like you more then them. But, I do know certain things about the movie (referential pop culture things) as well as know that this is a very well liked movie so I was really looking forward to watching it, almost as excited as you are to read this review.
Like I mentioned earlier The Godfather is referenced multiple times in media, some of which I didn't even know because it was from my childhood:
Okay, okay, okay, I know Fat Tony might not be a normal "Godfather" reference but in my naive youth I thought all Italian gangsters were references to The Godfather. This movie though next to maybe Goodfellas is probably the most referenced mafia movie in pop culture. This film also broke new ground by being a movie told from the side of the mafia. Most mafia or gangster movies at this time were more focused on the police trying to stop the mafia. All sorts of movies and TV shows now take a look from the side of the mafia, one of the most recent ones being The Sopranos (though the mob dressed better back in the day then they do now). This film won three Academy Awards for Best Writing, Best Picture, and Marlon Brando for Best Actor in a Leading Role.
Now lets see what the always positive people of the internet have to say about this film:
IMDB = 9.2
Rotten Tomatoes (Critic Rating) = 100%
Rotten Tomatoes (Audience Rating) = 97%
Holy cow these are some high ratings, I guess not everyone on the internet is negative.
Now before I start my own personal review I want to talk about how weird it is for me to watch older movies and see how young some of the actors look. I feel it is very similar to how when you see pictures of your parents, aunts, uncles, grandparents, etc. as kids and teenagers and you think to yourself, "you were young once?" Well the same thing happened to me while watching this movie:
Before I talk about the individual characters I just want to say that all the actors were great. I really thought that this was a very well acted movie. This movie had so many characters so there is no way I will be able to talk about them all so I will just talk about the ones I had either positive or negative opinions on. First of the character of Clemenza was awesome. I cannot explain why I liked him so much but I just thought he was awesome. Not sure if you ever like characters like this, you know, the ones that aren't that important, or even in the film much, but for some reason you really like them. That is what Clemenza is for me. Now the family has some great characters and some not so great characters. Fredo and Connie were both pointless and annoying. I have no idea why these characters even exist. They were so pointless and underused that they might have well not even been in it. Kay played by Diane Keaton was another character that did not really add much to the overall movie. Honestly the most i can say about her is that Diane Keaton looks better now then she did then (holy big forehead Batman). Then we have Vito, the character we all know, played by Marlon Brando. It is really hard to me to judge this character and this acting since, I CAN"T UNDERSTAND HIM:
So I will have to go with what other people say and just say he was great and the character is great too. Now we will get to my three favorite characters of the movie, Tom (Robert Duvall), Sonny (James Caan), and Michael (Al Pacino). All these characters were not only interesting but were awesome characters. I would watch a "Sopranos" like series if it followed these three characters. I really really liked them.
The story was very good and for a three hour movie there were not many times I was bored. It was great to see the character development. At times the pacing may seem slow and the movie does take some time getting to the main plot line it feels but I think it is worth it if it adds to the movie. The characters were well developed and the feeling of the movie was established. I really wish more movies would do this. I don't want to ruin the main story for you because I really enjoyed it and I want you to have the same experience. The script was fantastic. My only question is why do they always use Mario references. Now I also, as always, learned something from this movie. Here are just a few things:
#1: Horse heads are not as nice to cuddle with as teddy bears
#2: My Italian stereotypes aren't really stereotypes
#3: Cops suck (seems to be a trend)
#4: Italy is boring
#5: Women are more dangerous then shotguns and have lightning powers
#6: Babies crying are REALLY annoying
#7: Al did not age well
The music was really great in this film (one of the songs in is the Now and Then video). Though it was not something that really stood out all the time, when I did notice it I really enjoyed it. The effects, stunts, etc. were nothing to write home about (which is weird since I live at home) but they were not distractingly horrible either.
In conclusion, I really thought this was a good movie. It was well made and I really enjoyed watching it. Now I don't think it will become a movie I watch over and over again, but I did like it. Why do some great movies never become a movie that I can watch multiple times yet some lesser movie like Ocean's 11 can become a movie I watch almost every time it is on? Whatever, my grade for this film is an A.
Like I mentioned earlier The Godfather is referenced multiple times in media, some of which I didn't even know because it was from my childhood:
Okay, okay, okay, I know Fat Tony might not be a normal "Godfather" reference but in my naive youth I thought all Italian gangsters were references to The Godfather. This movie though next to maybe Goodfellas is probably the most referenced mafia movie in pop culture. This film also broke new ground by being a movie told from the side of the mafia. Most mafia or gangster movies at this time were more focused on the police trying to stop the mafia. All sorts of movies and TV shows now take a look from the side of the mafia, one of the most recent ones being The Sopranos (though the mob dressed better back in the day then they do now). This film won three Academy Awards for Best Writing, Best Picture, and Marlon Brando for Best Actor in a Leading Role.
Now lets see what the always positive people of the internet have to say about this film:
IMDB = 9.2
Rotten Tomatoes (Critic Rating) = 100%
Rotten Tomatoes (Audience Rating) = 97%
Holy cow these are some high ratings, I guess not everyone on the internet is negative.
Now before I start my own personal review I want to talk about how weird it is for me to watch older movies and see how young some of the actors look. I feel it is very similar to how when you see pictures of your parents, aunts, uncles, grandparents, etc. as kids and teenagers and you think to yourself, "you were young once?" Well the same thing happened to me while watching this movie:
Before I talk about the individual characters I just want to say that all the actors were great. I really thought that this was a very well acted movie. This movie had so many characters so there is no way I will be able to talk about them all so I will just talk about the ones I had either positive or negative opinions on. First of the character of Clemenza was awesome. I cannot explain why I liked him so much but I just thought he was awesome. Not sure if you ever like characters like this, you know, the ones that aren't that important, or even in the film much, but for some reason you really like them. That is what Clemenza is for me. Now the family has some great characters and some not so great characters. Fredo and Connie were both pointless and annoying. I have no idea why these characters even exist. They were so pointless and underused that they might have well not even been in it. Kay played by Diane Keaton was another character that did not really add much to the overall movie. Honestly the most i can say about her is that Diane Keaton looks better now then she did then (holy big forehead Batman). Then we have Vito, the character we all know, played by Marlon Brando. It is really hard to me to judge this character and this acting since, I CAN"T UNDERSTAND HIM:
So I will have to go with what other people say and just say he was great and the character is great too. Now we will get to my three favorite characters of the movie, Tom (Robert Duvall), Sonny (James Caan), and Michael (Al Pacino). All these characters were not only interesting but were awesome characters. I would watch a "Sopranos" like series if it followed these three characters. I really really liked them.
The story was very good and for a three hour movie there were not many times I was bored. It was great to see the character development. At times the pacing may seem slow and the movie does take some time getting to the main plot line it feels but I think it is worth it if it adds to the movie. The characters were well developed and the feeling of the movie was established. I really wish more movies would do this. I don't want to ruin the main story for you because I really enjoyed it and I want you to have the same experience. The script was fantastic. My only question is why do they always use Mario references. Now I also, as always, learned something from this movie. Here are just a few things:
#1: Horse heads are not as nice to cuddle with as teddy bears
#2: My Italian stereotypes aren't really stereotypes
#3: Cops suck (seems to be a trend)
#4: Italy is boring
#5: Women are more dangerous then shotguns and have lightning powers
#6: Babies crying are REALLY annoying
#7: Al did not age well
The music was really great in this film (one of the songs in is the Now and Then video). Though it was not something that really stood out all the time, when I did notice it I really enjoyed it. The effects, stunts, etc. were nothing to write home about (which is weird since I live at home) but they were not distractingly horrible either.
In conclusion, I really thought this was a good movie. It was well made and I really enjoyed watching it. Now I don't think it will become a movie I watch over and over again, but I did like it. Why do some great movies never become a movie that I can watch multiple times yet some lesser movie like Ocean's 11 can become a movie I watch almost every time it is on? Whatever, my grade for this film is an A.
Sunday, December 18, 2011
#48: Rear Window
Well we have come to another James (Jimmy) Stewart movie, today's review is no other then Rear Window. I was looking forward to this movie because, one my mom and girlfriend talked about how good it was, and two, I liked Disturbia. Also this is Alfred Hitchcock and to my knowledge I have never seen a Hitchcock movie all the way through. All this to say I was in good positive spirits going into this review.
Rear Window is based off a short story and directed by Hitchcock. Some even say it is one of Hitchcock's best works. This film was nominated for four Academy Awards including Best Director. While the film making aspect of this film is not ground breaking the story itself is one that has been referenced and redone many times:
One of the most recent adaptations slash remakes is Disturbia starring Shilabuff (sp?). Funny story about this though is that Distubia got sued for plagiarizing the book. I guess they didn't ask for permission of something. I was going to look more into it but I got bored.
The internet tells me that Rear Window should be critiqued like this:
IMDB = 8.7 out of 10
Rotten Tomatoes (Critic Rating) = 100%
Rotten Tomatoes (Audience Rating) = 95%
These ratings are very, very, very, very, very high. Seems like the internet really likes this movie.
Now lets see what I think, because that's the opinion I trust most. The characters in this film were decent. The women both Stella the Nurse and Grace Kelly's character were both very amusing. Stella at moments was down right hilarious and Grace Kelly was fun but mainly she was there to be pretty. The cop friend of our main character was a flat character as was the mysterious man they were watching. Nothing were super special about either of these character but both were played well and important to the story. Now our main star James (Jimmy) Stewart was the same old James (Jimmy) Stewart he has always been. I still feel that he is the same person in everything and all that changes is his occupation and motive, but I don't care I think he is still awesome.
The story was very interesting and suspenseful. The tension of spying on someone and not really knowing for sure what is happening is a great idea though I am curious if this is where the Patriot Act came from. Anyways, this movie was great from beginning to end, but for some reason during the climax I kept thinking of this song:
The script was well written and there are some saying the use back then that I wish we used today. Phrases like "hows your stomach?" "empty as a football". I want to use this in the near future and see how people react. As always there were lots of things an audience member could learn from this movie. Things like:
#1: Don't count on cops
#2: Girls dance around in their underwear
#3: Women pretend to have dinner parties
#4: People eat fish heads and rice
#5: People don't use blinds or curtains often
#6: Dog don't use elevators they use baskets
Wow! What a wealth of knowledge I just laid on you. Also what the frick is a rear window? This didn't take place in a car. Do people call the windows in the back of their house a rear window? I need to know because this whole time I just call them windows. I want to make sure I use the proper name.
The cinematography in this movie was great. Combined with the silence used in some scenes I really felt like I was spying on these different people outside of the window. It really helped in building up the suspense and drama in this film. While cinematography and sound may be a strength to this movie special effect well...... look for your self:
Overall I really enjoyed this movie, but I do think I would have enjoyed it more if I hadn't seen Disturbia before hand and went into this movie not knowing anything about it. Still I give this movie a B-
Now for a bonus feature (and this isn't even a DVD) you will now read about my journey through tying food. First off I love McDonald's but there are a few items that I was a little nervous to try for different reasons but I decided to give it a go and try these items with my girlfriend. First up was the Holiday Pie. It is a custard filled pie with sugar cookie crust. This honestly wasn't that bad it might be a little to sweet to eat a whole one but it was way better then my low expectations were. Next up was the Filet o' Fish. This one I was terrified to try something about fast food and fish doesn't sit right with me, I don't know why. Anyways it didn't make me want to throw up but I defiantly won't be eating this one again. Last up was the McRib. Now I know that everyone goes crazy for this when it is out but I was always weirded out by it. It looked like ribs, you know like a rack of ribs that you eat off the bone, except there is no bone in this rib patty. It is like the took "rib" meat and crammed it into a rib mold and made patties. Anyways it wasn't great and it wasn't horrible. It was just ok. I don't understand why everyone loves this. I could care less if I ever have another one in my life. Well, that's it thank you for reading this bonus feature.
Rear Window is based off a short story and directed by Hitchcock. Some even say it is one of Hitchcock's best works. This film was nominated for four Academy Awards including Best Director. While the film making aspect of this film is not ground breaking the story itself is one that has been referenced and redone many times:
One of the most recent adaptations slash remakes is Disturbia starring Shilabuff (sp?). Funny story about this though is that Distubia got sued for plagiarizing the book. I guess they didn't ask for permission of something. I was going to look more into it but I got bored.
The internet tells me that Rear Window should be critiqued like this:
IMDB = 8.7 out of 10
Rotten Tomatoes (Critic Rating) = 100%
Rotten Tomatoes (Audience Rating) = 95%
These ratings are very, very, very, very, very high. Seems like the internet really likes this movie.
Now lets see what I think, because that's the opinion I trust most. The characters in this film were decent. The women both Stella the Nurse and Grace Kelly's character were both very amusing. Stella at moments was down right hilarious and Grace Kelly was fun but mainly she was there to be pretty. The cop friend of our main character was a flat character as was the mysterious man they were watching. Nothing were super special about either of these character but both were played well and important to the story. Now our main star James (Jimmy) Stewart was the same old James (Jimmy) Stewart he has always been. I still feel that he is the same person in everything and all that changes is his occupation and motive, but I don't care I think he is still awesome.
The story was very interesting and suspenseful. The tension of spying on someone and not really knowing for sure what is happening is a great idea though I am curious if this is where the Patriot Act came from. Anyways, this movie was great from beginning to end, but for some reason during the climax I kept thinking of this song:
The script was well written and there are some saying the use back then that I wish we used today. Phrases like "hows your stomach?" "empty as a football". I want to use this in the near future and see how people react. As always there were lots of things an audience member could learn from this movie. Things like:
#1: Don't count on cops
#2: Girls dance around in their underwear
#3: Women pretend to have dinner parties
#4: People eat fish heads and rice
#5: People don't use blinds or curtains often
#6: Dog don't use elevators they use baskets
Wow! What a wealth of knowledge I just laid on you. Also what the frick is a rear window? This didn't take place in a car. Do people call the windows in the back of their house a rear window? I need to know because this whole time I just call them windows. I want to make sure I use the proper name.
The cinematography in this movie was great. Combined with the silence used in some scenes I really felt like I was spying on these different people outside of the window. It really helped in building up the suspense and drama in this film. While cinematography and sound may be a strength to this movie special effect well...... look for your self:
Overall I really enjoyed this movie, but I do think I would have enjoyed it more if I hadn't seen Disturbia before hand and went into this movie not knowing anything about it. Still I give this movie a B-
Now for a bonus feature (and this isn't even a DVD) you will now read about my journey through tying food. First off I love McDonald's but there are a few items that I was a little nervous to try for different reasons but I decided to give it a go and try these items with my girlfriend. First up was the Holiday Pie. It is a custard filled pie with sugar cookie crust. This honestly wasn't that bad it might be a little to sweet to eat a whole one but it was way better then my low expectations were. Next up was the Filet o' Fish. This one I was terrified to try something about fast food and fish doesn't sit right with me, I don't know why. Anyways it didn't make me want to throw up but I defiantly won't be eating this one again. Last up was the McRib. Now I know that everyone goes crazy for this when it is out but I was always weirded out by it. It looked like ribs, you know like a rack of ribs that you eat off the bone, except there is no bone in this rib patty. It is like the took "rib" meat and crammed it into a rib mold and made patties. Anyways it wasn't great and it wasn't horrible. It was just ok. I don't understand why everyone loves this. I could care less if I ever have another one in my life. Well, that's it thank you for reading this bonus feature.
Wednesday, December 14, 2011
#66: Raiders of the Lost Ark
If you didn't get enough of a biased fanboy review in my Lord of the Rings review then you are in luck because today we are reviewing Raiders of the Lost Ark. I love this movie!!! I love Indiana Jones!!!I feel like everyone loves this movie (except for one friend I had who never saw it because she thought it was a "boy" movie). I love the ride at Disneyland. I was so happy that I got to watch a movie like this and it made me realize that I wish a lot more of the AFI Top 100 movies were movies that I liked. Frick, I just wish more movies were like Raiders. Anyways enough of my gushing love for this film lets get on with the review.
Now once again I may be biased in my view here but I feel Indian Jones is one of the most iconic American film characters of all time. I mean if he wasn't such a huge icon why would the South Park kids feel like this:
So if everyone is this upset about the fourth movie then Indy must be a pretty important character. Also I think he might have inspired Devo to write a certain song:
In all seriousness though, when this film was released it received high critical ratings and one four Oscars for Best Art Direction, Best Effects, Best Editing, and Best Sound. It also received a Special Achievement Award for sound effects editing and was nominated for four other Academy Awards including Best Picture. The film also was included in the United States Library of Congress' National Film Registry as having been deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."
Now we will take a look at how the nerds of the internet have to say:
IMDB = 8.7 out of 10
Rotten Tomatoes (Critic Rating) = 94%
Rotten Tomatoes (Audience Rating) = 93%
I guess these rating are okay, but if the internet was really smart they would all be one-hundred percent.
Now get ready for me to start my biased portion of the review (if it wasn't biased already). The acting in this movie is fantastic. The baddies to be honest are not the greatest in movie history. Rene is a decent main bad guy but never seemed to be a real threat. Then we have the Nazis who... well they are Nazis so yeah.... But then we have Arnold Thot, played by Ronald Lacey, who is one of the most memorable villains from my childhood and I believe has one of the most memorable scene in this movie. Now lets move on to the good guys. First we have Sallah. I love Sallah, he is such a great side kick character. He is loyal, knowledgeable, helpful, and just they guy you want with you when you are hunting for ancient artifacts. Sadly, Sallah doesn't have a love interest in this movie, but Sallah can explain why:
Oh gosh! That's a knee slapper! So now we have Marion Ravenwood who is the main/only female character in this movie. She is played by Karen Allen and is fantastic at playing a tough, independent, female rather then the stereotypical damsel in distress. They only thing I need to ask Karen is:
Sorry I love that movie and couldn't resist. Now this brings us to Indian Jones. The main man himself. Indian Jones is a BAMF! He is awesome, amazing, wonderful, fantastic, marvelous, terrific, transcendent, athletic, rugged, tenacious, brilliant, ingenious... I need to stop I could go one all day. But, seriously Indiana Jones was fighting Nazis before it was cool. Harrison Ford was not originally cast to play Indiana, Tom Selleck was going to be the Jones. It is weird to think about now since I cannot imagine anyone else play Indy other the Harrison. Also I don't think Indy would look good with a mustache. Oh I forgot to mention. I am scared of snakes too.
The story is fantastic. I have seen this movie countless times and every time I am still entertained and engaged the whole way through. It is just so fun from beginning to end. I really wish more movies were like this today. The mix of action, adventure, and even just a little campy fun thrown in make this movie a blast. The script is great and combined with the actors there are some scenes of quick wit that are extremely enjoyable. But not only is this movie entertaining but it teaches us many thing.
#1: God hates Nazis
#2: Hooking up with underage chicks is awesome
#3: Marion is hot
#4: Archaeologists are awesome
Now there are some great stunts in this movie and the action is really fun. Now not all the effects are the greatest but I guess some of it comes with the times. One thing that I really liked in this movie was its use of light and shadows. There were a few reveals on Indy that were just awesome, but don't take my word for it:
And lastly the music in this movie is amazing. The theme song was my cellphone ringtone for years. I think it might be one of the most recognizable themes in movie history and it is a shame that it didn't win an Oscar.
All in all I love this movie and I know you know that so I guess I will just get straight to it and share my inflated grade of an A+
Now once again I may be biased in my view here but I feel Indian Jones is one of the most iconic American film characters of all time. I mean if he wasn't such a huge icon why would the South Park kids feel like this:
So if everyone is this upset about the fourth movie then Indy must be a pretty important character. Also I think he might have inspired Devo to write a certain song:
In all seriousness though, when this film was released it received high critical ratings and one four Oscars for Best Art Direction, Best Effects, Best Editing, and Best Sound. It also received a Special Achievement Award for sound effects editing and was nominated for four other Academy Awards including Best Picture. The film also was included in the United States Library of Congress' National Film Registry as having been deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."
Now we will take a look at how the nerds of the internet have to say:
IMDB = 8.7 out of 10
Rotten Tomatoes (Critic Rating) = 94%
Rotten Tomatoes (Audience Rating) = 93%
I guess these rating are okay, but if the internet was really smart they would all be one-hundred percent.
Now get ready for me to start my biased portion of the review (if it wasn't biased already). The acting in this movie is fantastic. The baddies to be honest are not the greatest in movie history. Rene is a decent main bad guy but never seemed to be a real threat. Then we have the Nazis who... well they are Nazis so yeah.... But then we have Arnold Thot, played by Ronald Lacey, who is one of the most memorable villains from my childhood and I believe has one of the most memorable scene in this movie. Now lets move on to the good guys. First we have Sallah. I love Sallah, he is such a great side kick character. He is loyal, knowledgeable, helpful, and just they guy you want with you when you are hunting for ancient artifacts. Sadly, Sallah doesn't have a love interest in this movie, but Sallah can explain why:
Oh gosh! That's a knee slapper! So now we have Marion Ravenwood who is the main/only female character in this movie. She is played by Karen Allen and is fantastic at playing a tough, independent, female rather then the stereotypical damsel in distress. They only thing I need to ask Karen is:
Sorry I love that movie and couldn't resist. Now this brings us to Indian Jones. The main man himself. Indian Jones is a BAMF! He is awesome, amazing, wonderful, fantastic, marvelous, terrific, transcendent, athletic, rugged, tenacious, brilliant, ingenious... I need to stop I could go one all day. But, seriously Indiana Jones was fighting Nazis before it was cool. Harrison Ford was not originally cast to play Indiana, Tom Selleck was going to be the Jones. It is weird to think about now since I cannot imagine anyone else play Indy other the Harrison. Also I don't think Indy would look good with a mustache. Oh I forgot to mention. I am scared of snakes too.
The story is fantastic. I have seen this movie countless times and every time I am still entertained and engaged the whole way through. It is just so fun from beginning to end. I really wish more movies were like this today. The mix of action, adventure, and even just a little campy fun thrown in make this movie a blast. The script is great and combined with the actors there are some scenes of quick wit that are extremely enjoyable. But not only is this movie entertaining but it teaches us many thing.
#1: God hates Nazis
#2: Hooking up with underage chicks is awesome
#3: Marion is hot
#4: Archaeologists are awesome
Now there are some great stunts in this movie and the action is really fun. Now not all the effects are the greatest but I guess some of it comes with the times. One thing that I really liked in this movie was its use of light and shadows. There were a few reveals on Indy that were just awesome, but don't take my word for it:
And lastly the music in this movie is amazing. The theme song was my cellphone ringtone for years. I think it might be one of the most recognizable themes in movie history and it is a shame that it didn't win an Oscar.
All in all I love this movie and I know you know that so I guess I will just get straight to it and share my inflated grade of an A+
Saturday, November 26, 2011
#79: The Wild Bunch
Before I start my review I need to complain a little first. I hate it when people talk during a movie that I am really trying to watch. I also hate it when people get a phone call and answer the phone but don't leave the room. Now, with both of these little pet peeves, I was about to yell at my dad when I was watching this weeks movie, The Wild Bunch, and he was on the phone and decided to sit down and watch the movie while still on the phone. Really dad, really!? Anywho... I knew next to nothing about this film before I watched it other then previews made for movies in the 60s are very different then previews now. I did know that no matter what that this movie had to be better then The Philadelphia Story (and yes I will keep using this as the standard of bad movies until I watch a worse AFI movie) so I was excited for that.
Now this movie really helped change the landscape of film making. For its time it used revolutionary techniques such as multi-angle editing and using normal and slow motion. This was interesting to learn since for me techniques like those have always been part of the action movies I watch, so to think of how audiences must have felt when they saw these techniques must have been awesome (why doesn't awful mean to be full of awe?). Also this movie was controversial for being graphically violent. Meaning this movie let us have this:
The graphic violence in The Wild Bunch is nothing compared to movies like Kill Bill or Saving Private Ryan, but to be that movie to really push the graphic violence envelope I can see how this movie earned its way to being a big part of American cinema history. This film was nominated for two academy awards for Best Original Score and Best Screenplay.
According to the internet we can see that The Wild Bunch got the following reviews:
IMDB= 8.1 out of 10
Rotten Tomatoes (Critic Rating)= 97%
Rotten Tomatoes (Audience Rating)= 89%
We can see here that this movie seems to vary in its ratings. We have one rating which gives it a vary high 97% while another rating gives it almost a 7 out of 10 (for those who don't know math that would be a score in the 70-79% range).
Now its the time you have all been waiting for, my opinion. This movie seems to have lots of characters all sort of forming different sides in this crazy Western. First we have the Mexicans, who were hard to understand, mainly cause all they did was speak Spanish. What ever happened to making everyone no matter their nationality speak English so the audience can understand? Anyways, the Mexicans were just a big pile of racial stereotypes. They sorta reminded me of drunk versions of this:
Then we have the bad guys? Okay I have been curious about this issue for a while now. When the main characters in a movie are outlaws are they still the good guys? For example in Ocean's 11 are they good guys? If they are the good guys does that make the people who are out to stop them the bad guys? If so this means its possible to have our good guys to be criminals and our bad guys to be cops. I guess we will chalk it up to perspective. So in this movie (according to our perspective) the bad guys are funny. There weren't much a point to a few of the characters other then to be obstacles for the "good guys" but I was entertained by them. The main bad guy was an interesting character but I did have a hard time telling him apart from the main good guy in some scenes. I guess I have to admit a weakness of mine... in old movies I have a hard telling main characters apart from one another because I feel that they all sort of look a like. So, now lets talk about the "good guys". Fist up we have an old crazy drunk man who is awesome, though it does seem that every Western needs an old crazy drunk guys who just looks gross and laughs the whole time. Next we have Angel the token Mexican "good guy". He isn't a walking stereotypes like the other Mexicans in this film but that's all I can say about him. I don't really like him or dislike him:
Then we have this duo of friends who seem to do everything together. They are always getting drunk, causing trouble, and just being entertaining. They were very funny to watch and just made being an outlaw to seem like it was a blast, they even sorta reminded me of pirates from Pirates of the Caribbean. Earnest Borgnine plays the main "good guys" right hand man and he is fantastic. I really liked this character. Then we have the main character of the film played by William Holden. He was a decent character but a little to unemotional for me to really get behind. I enjoyed the other "good guy" characters more then him. Overall the acting was decent and I am getting used to the idea that acting styles have changed over time so I guess I am learning that though sometimes the acing can seem cheesy doesn't mean its bad it just means that old movies are cheesy.
#1: Being a bad guy/outlaw is awesome.
#2: I don't think I would last long in the Old West (too dirty).
#3: Cowboys don't drink mixed drinks (I wonder when those became popular).
#4: Racism is funny.
#5: Chin straps are really meant to be worn on the chin.
The stunts in this movie were great but I did begin to wonder... can horses swim? If not there was a lot of animal cruelty in the making of this film. Also how do they do stunts with animals without the animals getting hurt? Also the gun fights in this movie were awesome and crazy though I couldn't help to this of this
every time there was a gun fight. The sound dubbing was horrible at points in this movie but the music I enjoyed and really helped adding to the enjoyment of the film.
In conclusion, I felt this was a good movie but could be better. The fact this movie broke new ground in both its styling and violence and gore is the reason this film made the AFI Top 100, because I do not think the story itself was good enough. I give this movie a C-.
Now this movie really helped change the landscape of film making. For its time it used revolutionary techniques such as multi-angle editing and using normal and slow motion. This was interesting to learn since for me techniques like those have always been part of the action movies I watch, so to think of how audiences must have felt when they saw these techniques must have been awesome (why doesn't awful mean to be full of awe?). Also this movie was controversial for being graphically violent. Meaning this movie let us have this:
The graphic violence in The Wild Bunch is nothing compared to movies like Kill Bill or Saving Private Ryan, but to be that movie to really push the graphic violence envelope I can see how this movie earned its way to being a big part of American cinema history. This film was nominated for two academy awards for Best Original Score and Best Screenplay.
According to the internet we can see that The Wild Bunch got the following reviews:
IMDB= 8.1 out of 10
Rotten Tomatoes (Critic Rating)= 97%
Rotten Tomatoes (Audience Rating)= 89%
We can see here that this movie seems to vary in its ratings. We have one rating which gives it a vary high 97% while another rating gives it almost a 7 out of 10 (for those who don't know math that would be a score in the 70-79% range).
Now its the time you have all been waiting for, my opinion. This movie seems to have lots of characters all sort of forming different sides in this crazy Western. First we have the Mexicans, who were hard to understand, mainly cause all they did was speak Spanish. What ever happened to making everyone no matter their nationality speak English so the audience can understand? Anyways, the Mexicans were just a big pile of racial stereotypes. They sorta reminded me of drunk versions of this:
Then we have the bad guys? Okay I have been curious about this issue for a while now. When the main characters in a movie are outlaws are they still the good guys? For example in Ocean's 11 are they good guys? If they are the good guys does that make the people who are out to stop them the bad guys? If so this means its possible to have our good guys to be criminals and our bad guys to be cops. I guess we will chalk it up to perspective. So in this movie (according to our perspective) the bad guys are funny. There weren't much a point to a few of the characters other then to be obstacles for the "good guys" but I was entertained by them. The main bad guy was an interesting character but I did have a hard time telling him apart from the main good guy in some scenes. I guess I have to admit a weakness of mine... in old movies I have a hard telling main characters apart from one another because I feel that they all sort of look a like. So, now lets talk about the "good guys". Fist up we have an old crazy drunk man who is awesome, though it does seem that every Western needs an old crazy drunk guys who just looks gross and laughs the whole time. Next we have Angel the token Mexican "good guy". He isn't a walking stereotypes like the other Mexicans in this film but that's all I can say about him. I don't really like him or dislike him:
Then we have this duo of friends who seem to do everything together. They are always getting drunk, causing trouble, and just being entertaining. They were very funny to watch and just made being an outlaw to seem like it was a blast, they even sorta reminded me of pirates from Pirates of the Caribbean. Earnest Borgnine plays the main "good guys" right hand man and he is fantastic. I really liked this character. Then we have the main character of the film played by William Holden. He was a decent character but a little to unemotional for me to really get behind. I enjoyed the other "good guy" characters more then him. Overall the acting was decent and I am getting used to the idea that acting styles have changed over time so I guess I am learning that though sometimes the acing can seem cheesy doesn't mean its bad it just means that old movies are cheesy.
#1: Being a bad guy/outlaw is awesome.
#2: I don't think I would last long in the Old West (too dirty).
#3: Cowboys don't drink mixed drinks (I wonder when those became popular).
#4: Racism is funny.
#5: Chin straps are really meant to be worn on the chin.
The stunts in this movie were great but I did begin to wonder... can horses swim? If not there was a lot of animal cruelty in the making of this film. Also how do they do stunts with animals without the animals getting hurt? Also the gun fights in this movie were awesome and crazy though I couldn't help to this of this
every time there was a gun fight. The sound dubbing was horrible at points in this movie but the music I enjoyed and really helped adding to the enjoyment of the film.
In conclusion, I felt this was a good movie but could be better. The fact this movie broke new ground in both its styling and violence and gore is the reason this film made the AFI Top 100, because I do not think the story itself was good enough. I give this movie a C-.
Sunday, November 6, 2011
#50: The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
OMG! This is the greatest movie I have ever seen in my life! Well, not really, but I did think so when this movie first came out. This week I am reviewing The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. Unlike all the other movies I have watched from the AFI Top 100 to date, this one I was extremely excited to watch. I love this movie. I would say I am a fanboy but then I have seen people who go to Comic-Con so I guess I'll just say I am a fan. Just to give you some background on how much I love these movies and stories here are some of the things I have done:
See this movie in theaters either five or six times
Read the whole trilogy of books every year before each movie came out
Watch the cartoon (which did have some awesome songs)
Attend a special screening of Return of the King where I also got to watch Fellowship of the Ring and Two Towers extended cuts in theaters (that was a very long day)
Anyways, all this to say that this review will be very positive.
This was the first movie in the The Lord of the Rings trilogy made by Peter Jackson. All movies were shot at the same time over a eight year span. I know this film isn't the first to do this but I also know it was the first time I heard of a franchise doing that and I hear about it a lot more now. Also this film was so big that it made the fantasy genre main stream and even "cool" to like. References to this movie are made all the time
All of us nerds should be thankful movies like this do well. This film was also nominated for thirteen academy awards winning four of them for Best Cinematography, Best Visual Effects, Best Makeup, and Best Original Score.
Now since the internet is always right we will take a look at how it scores there:
IMDB= 8.8 out of 10
Rotten Tomatoes (Critic Rating)= 92%
Rotten Tomatoes (Audience Rating)= 92%
These scores really show just how well this fantasy movie was received. I do honestly believe that franchises like this made it possible for fantasy movies to be taken seriously.
Now lets talk about what I think of this movie (get ready for a very biased review) starting with the characters. Okay, so there are a lot of characters in this movie like Bilbo, Gollum, and Agent Smith who don't really play a big role, at least in this movie. We also have a pair of girls, Liv Tyler playing Arwen and Cate Blanchett as Galadriel. Now though I really don't care for either of these characters there is one thing that really bugged me about them and the story. In the movie it is talked about how beautiful and attractive Galadriel is yet Arwen is talked about in the same manner. This pisses me off like there is no tomorrow (why is this a saying?). I hate it when there is obviously a more attractive actress playing a role yet another actress' character is seen to be more beautiful by the characters in the story. Anyways.... lets look at the bad guys. First off we have the dark riders though they aren't much character wise they did give my girlfriend and her mom nightmares so I guess they did their job. We also have Sauron who is just an eyeball in the sky and the traitor white wizard Saruman (sorry if calling him a traitor is a spoiler but their names are practically the same). Now we come to the Fellowship, our main heroes. First off we have Boromir which I'm just glad he kept his head on in this movie. Then we have Gimli who is okay in this movie but he is still often used a comedic relief and it makes me a little mad because in the books he is a little more of a BAMF. As we talk about the next character I need to admit that this will be extremely biased as this character has helped shape my life and make me the man I am today. Legolas is a bad-ass elf who shoots arrows and is awesome and kills people and is awesome and has cool elf skills/powers and is awesome. This character alone has made me obsessed with elves. When I play WoW I am a elf, when I play D&D I am an elf, and when Skyrim comes I will be an elf. He just showed me how awesome elves are. Aragorn played by Viggo Mortensen is also a bad-ass and both my mom and my girlfriend felt that he looks the best as this character though neither could explain why. We have Gandolf, the anti-Dumbledore, who is wise yet more human then typical characters in this role. He does do magic but it seems to most of the time to just be fireworks, which in that case China used to have a lot of wizards. Hobbits are awesome, funny, and I love them a ton. Merry and Pippin are just hilarious and a ton of fun. It is great to see what I feel is a normal person going on a huge adventure where they are way over their heads. Though it is weird to look at Merry and not think of Charlie. Sam (Rudy) is great and his relationship with Frodo is endearing though many people got a gay vibe from the two of them. To those people I say, I guess you haven't seen the cartoon:
I bet the look pretty straight in the live action movie now, huh? This leads me to Frodo who is my least favorite person in the Fellowship mainly cause he is a annoying whiner the whole time. I guess his burden is hard but, its still annoying. Though thinking of Frodo does remind me of this:
My friend tried to reenact this for hours as he continued to fall on his back and catch his ring on his finger. He never did it.
The story is great. I really like the epic adventure and though there are differences between the books and the films I was able to look past them and enjoy the movie for what it was. The movie is really really really really long especially since I had the extended version. Those there is one thing that I always was curious about, why is it called Middle-Earth? Is it the middle of our Earth? is it in the Earth's core? Where is Right or Left Earth? As I ask these questions I guarantee there are nerds out there who know this answer. The script was great as well with only a few times where I laughed at the lines when they weren't meant to be funny (there is one point when Gandolf mentions following his nose and all I can think of is Fruit Loops). There are also great lines such as:
I cannot have beer with most of my friends without this line being quoted.
The Academy Awards got the awards right. This film excels in music, costumes, makeup, special effects, and settings. All these thing really aid in getting the audience sucked into the film. The Hobbits are smaller then the other characters. The building look awesome and have a ton of detail. The orcs look great. The music is so epic that I used to listen to it to motivate me to do things. All of these little things really add to this movie that already has a great story and fantastic characters to make a film worth of all the nominations and wins they got.
In Conclusion, if you couldn't tell, I love this movie, but if I am honest with myself I don't really know if this movie belongs on the AFI Top 100 and I would not be surprised if it is gone when they update the list. With that said if I made my own list (and I am) it would for sure be on it and most likely near the top. This movie gets an A-.
See this movie in theaters either five or six times
Read the whole trilogy of books every year before each movie came out
Watch the cartoon (which did have some awesome songs)
Attend a special screening of Return of the King where I also got to watch Fellowship of the Ring and Two Towers extended cuts in theaters (that was a very long day)
Anyways, all this to say that this review will be very positive.
This was the first movie in the The Lord of the Rings trilogy made by Peter Jackson. All movies were shot at the same time over a eight year span. I know this film isn't the first to do this but I also know it was the first time I heard of a franchise doing that and I hear about it a lot more now. Also this film was so big that it made the fantasy genre main stream and even "cool" to like. References to this movie are made all the time
All of us nerds should be thankful movies like this do well. This film was also nominated for thirteen academy awards winning four of them for Best Cinematography, Best Visual Effects, Best Makeup, and Best Original Score.
Now since the internet is always right we will take a look at how it scores there:
IMDB= 8.8 out of 10
Rotten Tomatoes (Critic Rating)= 92%
Rotten Tomatoes (Audience Rating)= 92%
These scores really show just how well this fantasy movie was received. I do honestly believe that franchises like this made it possible for fantasy movies to be taken seriously.
Now lets talk about what I think of this movie (get ready for a very biased review) starting with the characters. Okay, so there are a lot of characters in this movie like Bilbo, Gollum, and Agent Smith who don't really play a big role, at least in this movie. We also have a pair of girls, Liv Tyler playing Arwen and Cate Blanchett as Galadriel. Now though I really don't care for either of these characters there is one thing that really bugged me about them and the story. In the movie it is talked about how beautiful and attractive Galadriel is yet Arwen is talked about in the same manner. This pisses me off like there is no tomorrow (why is this a saying?). I hate it when there is obviously a more attractive actress playing a role yet another actress' character is seen to be more beautiful by the characters in the story. Anyways.... lets look at the bad guys. First off we have the dark riders though they aren't much character wise they did give my girlfriend and her mom nightmares so I guess they did their job. We also have Sauron who is just an eyeball in the sky and the traitor white wizard Saruman (sorry if calling him a traitor is a spoiler but their names are practically the same). Now we come to the Fellowship, our main heroes. First off we have Boromir which I'm just glad he kept his head on in this movie. Then we have Gimli who is okay in this movie but he is still often used a comedic relief and it makes me a little mad because in the books he is a little more of a BAMF. As we talk about the next character I need to admit that this will be extremely biased as this character has helped shape my life and make me the man I am today. Legolas is a bad-ass elf who shoots arrows and is awesome and kills people and is awesome and has cool elf skills/powers and is awesome. This character alone has made me obsessed with elves. When I play WoW I am a elf, when I play D&D I am an elf, and when Skyrim comes I will be an elf. He just showed me how awesome elves are. Aragorn played by Viggo Mortensen is also a bad-ass and both my mom and my girlfriend felt that he looks the best as this character though neither could explain why. We have Gandolf, the anti-Dumbledore, who is wise yet more human then typical characters in this role. He does do magic but it seems to most of the time to just be fireworks, which in that case China used to have a lot of wizards. Hobbits are awesome, funny, and I love them a ton. Merry and Pippin are just hilarious and a ton of fun. It is great to see what I feel is a normal person going on a huge adventure where they are way over their heads. Though it is weird to look at Merry and not think of Charlie. Sam (Rudy) is great and his relationship with Frodo is endearing though many people got a gay vibe from the two of them. To those people I say, I guess you haven't seen the cartoon:
I bet the look pretty straight in the live action movie now, huh? This leads me to Frodo who is my least favorite person in the Fellowship mainly cause he is a annoying whiner the whole time. I guess his burden is hard but, its still annoying. Though thinking of Frodo does remind me of this:
My friend tried to reenact this for hours as he continued to fall on his back and catch his ring on his finger. He never did it.
The story is great. I really like the epic adventure and though there are differences between the books and the films I was able to look past them and enjoy the movie for what it was. The movie is really really really really long especially since I had the extended version. Those there is one thing that I always was curious about, why is it called Middle-Earth? Is it the middle of our Earth? is it in the Earth's core? Where is Right or Left Earth? As I ask these questions I guarantee there are nerds out there who know this answer. The script was great as well with only a few times where I laughed at the lines when they weren't meant to be funny (there is one point when Gandolf mentions following his nose and all I can think of is Fruit Loops). There are also great lines such as:
I cannot have beer with most of my friends without this line being quoted.
The Academy Awards got the awards right. This film excels in music, costumes, makeup, special effects, and settings. All these thing really aid in getting the audience sucked into the film. The Hobbits are smaller then the other characters. The building look awesome and have a ton of detail. The orcs look great. The music is so epic that I used to listen to it to motivate me to do things. All of these little things really add to this movie that already has a great story and fantastic characters to make a film worth of all the nominations and wins they got.
In Conclusion, if you couldn't tell, I love this movie, but if I am honest with myself I don't really know if this movie belongs on the AFI Top 100 and I would not be surprised if it is gone when they update the list. With that said if I made my own list (and I am) it would for sure be on it and most likely near the top. This movie gets an A-.
Sunday, October 30, 2011
#27: High Noon
This week's weeks review is High Noon. Now I actually was looking forward to watching this movie but that may be due to last week's movie (I mean anything compared to that will be better). I do not have much experience with Westerns, but that most likely stems from the fact that Westerns aren't as popular as they used to be and I hate old things, speaking of, despite this being made in 1952 it is still in black and white (ugh). Anyways given this wasn't The Philadelphia Story it was a lot easier to cowboy up and watch the film this week.
High Noon was one a the first movies to be set in real time. Meaning that movie time and real time move at the same rate. This caused me to think of this every time they looked at a clock
Except instead of Jack Bauer kicking ass it is a sheriff. This film was also selected from preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". I have no idea what this really means but it makes this movie seem really important. Also feel free to look up what this means for me, I'm to lazy. Also John Wayne hated this movie because it was an allegory for blacklisting......Anyways! This film is also referenced in Die Hard:
High Noon was also nominated for seven academy awards, including Best Picture, winning four for Best Acting in a Leading Role - Gary Cooper, Best Film Editing, Best Music Score, and Best Music Song. All of this is neat but nothing is still as cool as being mentioned in Die Hard. Oh, did I mention Die Hard is my favorite movie.
Now we will take a look at how the wise people, like yourself, who rate thing on the internet felt about this movie:
IMDB= 8.3 out of 10
Rotten Tomatoes (Critic Rating)= 96%
Rotten Tomatoes (Audience Rating)= 87%
Once again we see that these movies, so far, have continued to be well received. Though this film did not rate as high as The Philadelphia Story I just assume people didn't realize John McClane is a fan of this movie (If they did everything would be at 100%).
Enough with the critics' opinion now its time for mine. Starting with the characters. First off there were many characters in this movie but most of there were small characters who were only in a few scenes. The acting ranged all over the place. Some actors were great while others were horrible. My mom even pointed out how far acting has come since then. The delivery of their lines just seemed so bland and they were sometimes be long pauses before the other person spoke. It was very awkward. The bad guys in this film I felt were under used. The movie would continue to show them sitting around yet they never developed these characters. I know one of them had a name but I am not sure if the other two did. This surprised me since the "bad" in The Good, the Bad, the Ugly was one of these nameless baddies. Now to continue on with the bad guys they did have a leader named Frank. Once again he was still not developed really, this is really strange since he is the main antagonist. Katy Jurado played Helen Ramirez, who was a pretty main character of this film, might have been one of the worst actors in the movie. Every time she came on the screen I would let out a sigh just due to her horrid acting. Even my girlfriend felt she was a horrible actress. Then to top it all off she said one of the stupidest things ever:
I hate when people say this. Also by people I mean girls. I haven't met a guy who has said this. Then we have Lloyd Bridges playing the Deputy. This character was very interesting I felt but once again I wish he was in it more and his conflict was a bigger plot in the film. Now we have the very attractive Grace Kelly who plays the wife of our main character. I really liked her character and I felt they not only gave her a good background to help define her character but she also had some nice character development through the movie. Gary Cooper, who played main character in this practically one-man-show, was awesome. He was just one of the main characters who is just so cool and tough that it is hard not to like him, which is really good since he is the only character who gives a great performance, is developed well, and is given adequate screen time. Some character had some of these qualities but Gary Cooper's character was the only one who had all three.
I really liked the story of this film. It was simple and yet I was extremely engaged. The real time aspect of this movie made it really interesting and I found myself looking at the play time on the DVD payer to see how much time was left. There were some funny things with the script like a few bad lines and a weird no cursing thing (I mean a character really said "Well, I'll be......" That's it, nothing else. What will he be? What was he trying to say?). Anyways, the great stroy made up for this thought I did learn some things from this movie:
#1: No one likes cops
#2: Kids hate going to church
#3: Loitering is a popular activity for troublemakers
#4: Helping people doesn't pay off
Interesting how somethings never change.
Now, lets look over some of the miscellaneous things that also add or subtract from this movie. I know the music won academy awards but I do not understand why. The music was so over dramatic all the time. I even started to jokingly gasp each time they played it, escpeially becasue it didn't take much at. Pretty much all it took was someone entering the room:
Also the set looked cheap at times but it wasn't horribly noticeable. On the positive side the cinemotogrpahy was great in this movie. There were a lot of really cool shots and I was impressed that they were able to do given the time the film was made.
In conclusion, I really liked this movie and many of its flaws did not seem to matter where compared to the film's strengths. This is still one of the few Westerns I have seen and this one made me really excited to see more which is good because there are a lot of them on the AFI top 100. Hopefully they will have better acting though. So, my grade for this movie is a solid B.
High Noon was one a the first movies to be set in real time. Meaning that movie time and real time move at the same rate. This caused me to think of this every time they looked at a clock
Except instead of Jack Bauer kicking ass it is a sheriff. This film was also selected from preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". I have no idea what this really means but it makes this movie seem really important. Also feel free to look up what this means for me, I'm to lazy. Also John Wayne hated this movie because it was an allegory for blacklisting......Anyways! This film is also referenced in Die Hard:
High Noon was also nominated for seven academy awards, including Best Picture, winning four for Best Acting in a Leading Role - Gary Cooper, Best Film Editing, Best Music Score, and Best Music Song. All of this is neat but nothing is still as cool as being mentioned in Die Hard. Oh, did I mention Die Hard is my favorite movie.
Now we will take a look at how the wise people, like yourself, who rate thing on the internet felt about this movie:
IMDB= 8.3 out of 10
Rotten Tomatoes (Critic Rating)= 96%
Rotten Tomatoes (Audience Rating)= 87%
Once again we see that these movies, so far, have continued to be well received. Though this film did not rate as high as The Philadelphia Story I just assume people didn't realize John McClane is a fan of this movie (If they did everything would be at 100%).
Enough with the critics' opinion now its time for mine. Starting with the characters. First off there were many characters in this movie but most of there were small characters who were only in a few scenes. The acting ranged all over the place. Some actors were great while others were horrible. My mom even pointed out how far acting has come since then. The delivery of their lines just seemed so bland and they were sometimes be long pauses before the other person spoke. It was very awkward. The bad guys in this film I felt were under used. The movie would continue to show them sitting around yet they never developed these characters. I know one of them had a name but I am not sure if the other two did. This surprised me since the "bad" in The Good, the Bad, the Ugly was one of these nameless baddies. Now to continue on with the bad guys they did have a leader named Frank. Once again he was still not developed really, this is really strange since he is the main antagonist. Katy Jurado played Helen Ramirez, who was a pretty main character of this film, might have been one of the worst actors in the movie. Every time she came on the screen I would let out a sigh just due to her horrid acting. Even my girlfriend felt she was a horrible actress. Then to top it all off she said one of the stupidest things ever:
I hate when people say this. Also by people I mean girls. I haven't met a guy who has said this. Then we have Lloyd Bridges playing the Deputy. This character was very interesting I felt but once again I wish he was in it more and his conflict was a bigger plot in the film. Now we have the very attractive Grace Kelly who plays the wife of our main character. I really liked her character and I felt they not only gave her a good background to help define her character but she also had some nice character development through the movie. Gary Cooper, who played main character in this practically one-man-show, was awesome. He was just one of the main characters who is just so cool and tough that it is hard not to like him, which is really good since he is the only character who gives a great performance, is developed well, and is given adequate screen time. Some character had some of these qualities but Gary Cooper's character was the only one who had all three.
I really liked the story of this film. It was simple and yet I was extremely engaged. The real time aspect of this movie made it really interesting and I found myself looking at the play time on the DVD payer to see how much time was left. There were some funny things with the script like a few bad lines and a weird no cursing thing (I mean a character really said "Well, I'll be......" That's it, nothing else. What will he be? What was he trying to say?). Anyways, the great stroy made up for this thought I did learn some things from this movie:
#1: No one likes cops
#2: Kids hate going to church
#3: Loitering is a popular activity for troublemakers
#4: Helping people doesn't pay off
Interesting how somethings never change.
Now, lets look over some of the miscellaneous things that also add or subtract from this movie. I know the music won academy awards but I do not understand why. The music was so over dramatic all the time. I even started to jokingly gasp each time they played it, escpeially becasue it didn't take much at. Pretty much all it took was someone entering the room:
Also the set looked cheap at times but it wasn't horribly noticeable. On the positive side the cinemotogrpahy was great in this movie. There were a lot of really cool shots and I was impressed that they were able to do given the time the film was made.
In conclusion, I really liked this movie and many of its flaws did not seem to matter where compared to the film's strengths. This is still one of the few Westerns I have seen and this one made me really excited to see more which is good because there are a lot of them on the AFI top 100. Hopefully they will have better acting though. So, my grade for this movie is a solid B.
Saturday, October 22, 2011
#45: The Philadelphia Story
This week I watched The Philadelphia Story. When I first put this in my Netflix queue list I thought it was a movie about AIDs and homosexuals... I was wrong. Just so you don't make the same mistake as me. This is Philadelphia, this is The Philadelphia Story. Now, as I have mentioned before, I do not like old movies, especially black and white movies, so I really did not want to watch this. I was trying to convince my girlfriend to watch a different movie but she didn't want to. So like I said, this week I watched The Philadelphia Story.
The Philadelphia Story is based off of a Broadway play of the same name and was also Kathrine Hepburn's first major role after a series of flops and even used the help of Howard "The Aviator" Hughes to get the rights to the play so she could star in the movie. Why don't actors do this more often? maybe the do, but I feel that it would be cool to buy the rights to a movie just so you could act and look awesome in it. The Philadelphia Story was nominated for six Academy Awards and won two: Jimmy Stewart (also why did I grow up my whole life calling him Jimmy when in the credits his name is James?) for Best Actor and Daniel Ogden Stewart for Best Adapted Screenplay.
Now lets take a look how the interwebs has critiqued this film:
IMDB= 8.1 out of 10
Rotten Tomatoes (Critic Rating)= 100%
Rotten Tomatoes (Audience Rating)= 92%
So looking at these score I feel like this movie has to be one of the greatest movies of all time. Though critics gave it fantastic reviews audiences seem to give the movie around a B+. These rating gave me some hope as I watched the movie. The internet can't be wrong, can it?
Now its time for my personal look at the movie, starting with the characters. We will start with Mother Lord and Father Lord. They are fine and do not really have big enough roles. Honestly I felt at times as if these characters were not really needed. Uncle Willie is... well he is creepy (more on that later). Dinah is a great character and very funny. My only negative thing to say about this character is that I wish she was in it more and did funnier stuff. Now one of the other funny characters is Elizabeth Imbrie played by Ruth Hussey. She has a real quick wit and just great comedic timing. Her character was very enjoyable and I wish she had more opportunities to show her comedic skills. John Howard as George Kittredge was important as far as plot goes but as a character was boring, bland, and not very likeable, though that may be the point of the character. Now we will get to the three stars of the film, Cary Grant, Kathrine Hepburn, and James (Jimmy) Stewart. Cary Grant plays Dexter Haven and my girlfriend loves him, I don't know why. My thing with this character is that I am not sure if I am supposed to like this guy and root for him or not like him at all. I have a hard time being neutral on characters and I want to but Dexter into one category or the other and by the end of the film I wasn't sure how the audience was supposed to feel about him. James (Jimmy) Stewart plays Macaulay Connor. While watching this movie I realized James (Jimmy) Stewart plays the same character in everything he is in (Note: I have only now seen him in this and It's a Wonderful Life).
Here he is in It's a Wonderful Life:
And here he is in The Philadelphia Story:
Now just because he seems to act the same in his movies doesn't make him unenjoyable. Actors like Michael Cera, Jennifer Aniston, and Ryan Reynolds seem to play the same characters all the time and I still like them. Finally we will talk about Kathrine Hepburn. First off I need to ask if you guys think she has annoying voice. After the movie my mom and girlfriend were discussing Hepburn and her voice and how it wasn't as annoying in this movie as it is in other movies. I didn't notice anything wrong with her voice and felt out of the loop so maybe you guys can help me out. Ok moving on, I didn't feel like she was anything special in this movie, especially given that this was a break out role for her of sorts. She did play off the male characters well though.
Now the story is really what made this film not workout for me. I don't want to spoil the movie so I won't go into details. The premise that I thought the movie was originally going to go for when James (Jimmy) Stewart's character showed up would have been great but it seemed that idea lasted about 30 seconds. Then the story went into this messy love triangle story where I wasn't sure which character I was supposed to want to get the girl in the end. This "romantic" movie's ending really got me confused but I don't want to spoil it here. Also I learned two things from this movie:
#1: Domestic abuse is fine and even funny?
#2: Sexual harassment is funny, especially if it comes from a family member
I am not a hardcore feminist or anything but wow did this movie seem to show that females are men's toys to play with.
Now lets talk about a few other things that go into making a movie starting with the lighting. There were many times that the lighting was so bright or something it seemed that Hepburn was glowing, like she was some kind of angel or something. I don't know if this was just the style back then or something that just happened more often in black and white movies or what. I am not a film student or anything I just know it was weird. Another weird thing was the costumes. There was at one point where Kathrine Hepburn looked as if she was wearing a night cap. I don't know if this was all the rage back then but it looked silly.
Overall this movie was okay. It did have funny moments, even if I didn't understand some of the sayings, and the acting was good. The think that really ruined this movie for me was the plot. I can not get over how this movie views domestic abuse. Also I do not understand why this movie is in the AFI top 100. Maybe later I will feel different about this movie but for now I give this movie a D+
The Philadelphia Story is based off of a Broadway play of the same name and was also Kathrine Hepburn's first major role after a series of flops and even used the help of Howard "The Aviator" Hughes to get the rights to the play so she could star in the movie. Why don't actors do this more often? maybe the do, but I feel that it would be cool to buy the rights to a movie just so you could act and look awesome in it. The Philadelphia Story was nominated for six Academy Awards and won two: Jimmy Stewart (also why did I grow up my whole life calling him Jimmy when in the credits his name is James?) for Best Actor and Daniel Ogden Stewart for Best Adapted Screenplay.
Now lets take a look how the interwebs has critiqued this film:
IMDB= 8.1 out of 10
Rotten Tomatoes (Critic Rating)= 100%
Rotten Tomatoes (Audience Rating)= 92%
So looking at these score I feel like this movie has to be one of the greatest movies of all time. Though critics gave it fantastic reviews audiences seem to give the movie around a B+. These rating gave me some hope as I watched the movie. The internet can't be wrong, can it?
Now its time for my personal look at the movie, starting with the characters. We will start with Mother Lord and Father Lord. They are fine and do not really have big enough roles. Honestly I felt at times as if these characters were not really needed. Uncle Willie is... well he is creepy (more on that later). Dinah is a great character and very funny. My only negative thing to say about this character is that I wish she was in it more and did funnier stuff. Now one of the other funny characters is Elizabeth Imbrie played by Ruth Hussey. She has a real quick wit and just great comedic timing. Her character was very enjoyable and I wish she had more opportunities to show her comedic skills. John Howard as George Kittredge was important as far as plot goes but as a character was boring, bland, and not very likeable, though that may be the point of the character. Now we will get to the three stars of the film, Cary Grant, Kathrine Hepburn, and James (Jimmy) Stewart. Cary Grant plays Dexter Haven and my girlfriend loves him, I don't know why. My thing with this character is that I am not sure if I am supposed to like this guy and root for him or not like him at all. I have a hard time being neutral on characters and I want to but Dexter into one category or the other and by the end of the film I wasn't sure how the audience was supposed to feel about him. James (Jimmy) Stewart plays Macaulay Connor. While watching this movie I realized James (Jimmy) Stewart plays the same character in everything he is in (Note: I have only now seen him in this and It's a Wonderful Life).
Here he is in It's a Wonderful Life:
And here he is in The Philadelphia Story:
Now just because he seems to act the same in his movies doesn't make him unenjoyable. Actors like Michael Cera, Jennifer Aniston, and Ryan Reynolds seem to play the same characters all the time and I still like them. Finally we will talk about Kathrine Hepburn. First off I need to ask if you guys think she has annoying voice. After the movie my mom and girlfriend were discussing Hepburn and her voice and how it wasn't as annoying in this movie as it is in other movies. I didn't notice anything wrong with her voice and felt out of the loop so maybe you guys can help me out. Ok moving on, I didn't feel like she was anything special in this movie, especially given that this was a break out role for her of sorts. She did play off the male characters well though.
Now the story is really what made this film not workout for me. I don't want to spoil the movie so I won't go into details. The premise that I thought the movie was originally going to go for when James (Jimmy) Stewart's character showed up would have been great but it seemed that idea lasted about 30 seconds. Then the story went into this messy love triangle story where I wasn't sure which character I was supposed to want to get the girl in the end. This "romantic" movie's ending really got me confused but I don't want to spoil it here. Also I learned two things from this movie:
#1: Domestic abuse is fine and even funny?
#2: Sexual harassment is funny, especially if it comes from a family member
I am not a hardcore feminist or anything but wow did this movie seem to show that females are men's toys to play with.
Now lets talk about a few other things that go into making a movie starting with the lighting. There were many times that the lighting was so bright or something it seemed that Hepburn was glowing, like she was some kind of angel or something. I don't know if this was just the style back then or something that just happened more often in black and white movies or what. I am not a film student or anything I just know it was weird. Another weird thing was the costumes. There was at one point where Kathrine Hepburn looked as if she was wearing a night cap. I don't know if this was all the rage back then but it looked silly.
Overall this movie was okay. It did have funny moments, even if I didn't understand some of the sayings, and the acting was good. The think that really ruined this movie for me was the plot. I can not get over how this movie views domestic abuse. Also I do not understand why this movie is in the AFI top 100. Maybe later I will feel different about this movie but for now I give this movie a D+
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
#34: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
Alright today we will be looking at our first movie... Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Now I was not excited at all to watch this movie. Like I have mentioned before (and will continue to mention) I hate old things. There are only a handful of movies/tv/music that I like that was made before 1980 and given that this movie was made in 1937 I was complaining to my mom (yes I am lame and still live at home) and my girlfriend on how I didn't want to watch this, but a man has to do what a man has to do.
Now Snow White was the first ever animated full-length featured film. This means this film laid the foundation for animated movies to become a norm. It is extremely hard for me to think of a childhood without animated movies. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs paved the way for so many films like these:
So as you can see they aren't all that good but I guess you have to take the good with the bad. Also this helped make Disney the awesome empire they are today. Now I am an unapologetic Disney lover. I go to Disneyland all the time, I love their movies, I pretty much worship Walt (not really just saying this for dramatic effect), and I own mouse ears (this is true.... I'm a dork) and this movie helped start their movie dominance. They now have had movies nominated for best pictures and many rides at their theme parks based on their rides. So despite my feeling towards old things, I love animated movies and Disney so I have to pay some respect to his film.
Next we will do a quick rundown on how this movie rates according to Rotten Tomatoes and IMDB:
IMDB= 7.8 out of 10
Rotten Tomatoes (Critic Rating) = 97%
Rotten Tomatoes (Audience Rating) = 72%
So looking at these scores it seems that critically this movie still means a lot and is a great piece of work for its time but it seems some people out there think like me and rate older things a little lower :)
Now for my person critique. Lets start with the characters. We have the huntsman, who is pointless and also his voice acting is miserable. Many of the characters in this movie have bad voice acting and I guess one can say its due to the time it was made in and to that I say I don't care. The prince, who is in this movie for a whole 3 minutes is pointless and stupid. Now lets move on to more important characters first we have the queen. She is awesome! But before I go on I have always always always always wondered what she is wearing. What is it? A hood? Is she bald? Gone gray and embarrassed? I mean if she was bald or losing hair it would explain why she isn't the fairest in the land I hope someone out there can tell me. Anyways she is one of my favorite characters from this movie she is evil, for who knows what reason, scary when she turns into that hag, and she is sorta hot... I mean umm..... So she is so scary my girlfriend won't go on the Snow White ride at Disneyland. Next we have the seven dwarfs. These guys take up so much time in the movie it should be called The Seven Dwarfs and Snow White. There is so much time of them just being funny and doing their thing. I love these guys and without them this film would be really boring. Now on a side note I always heard the dwarfs are representative of different stages of drug use or something like that (I have never done drugs so I may sound ignorant) like using cocaine or I dunno. Now some of them make sense but the one I still don't understand is Bashful. Does taking drugs make you shy? I don't get it. While we are on this side note when ever Sneezy was about to sneeze they would put their finger under his nose like this:
I just don't get it. Oh well. Now lets take a look at Snow White... well she is boring. Her personality can be summed up as being nice. Also he singing voice is one of the worst things I have ever heard, but we will talk about that later.
Now The story of Snow White is fairly simple yet it is entertaining enough with the help of some good characters. The movies moves quickly and yet slowly is parts as well. Now I don't want to spoil any of the plot since I hope by reading this blog you want to see some of these films I will just sum up the things I learned:
#1: Being pretty is important
#2: Women should clean to earn their keep
#3: Ugly = Scary/evil
#4: You don't need a good personality just good looks
#5: Don't talk to strangers
#6: Kisses fixes everything
I hope you take all of these to heart and apply them to your life today. Seriously though the story is ok for a kids movie.
Now lets do a quick look over on the animation and music. The animation is decent for a movie that old and when I was a kid I didn't think it looked that bad but compared with animation today it looks sub par. I don't care if it was awesome in its day, cause its my day now and I think its is just ok. The music is both great and horrible. Some songs are good and really make me remember my childhood, also the score is good as well. But then Snow White sings
AHHH it hurts my ears!!! Wow it also makes me miss Ke$ha.
Overall this movie is just average but as I watched it I was reminded how entreating an old Disney movie can be and nostalgia swept over me. When you look at how this movie influenced culture and film it is easy to see why this movie is in the AFI top 100. After reviewing this movie I give it a C+
Now Snow White was the first ever animated full-length featured film. This means this film laid the foundation for animated movies to become a norm. It is extremely hard for me to think of a childhood without animated movies. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs paved the way for so many films like these:
So as you can see they aren't all that good but I guess you have to take the good with the bad. Also this helped make Disney the awesome empire they are today. Now I am an unapologetic Disney lover. I go to Disneyland all the time, I love their movies, I pretty much worship Walt (not really just saying this for dramatic effect), and I own mouse ears (this is true.... I'm a dork) and this movie helped start their movie dominance. They now have had movies nominated for best pictures and many rides at their theme parks based on their rides. So despite my feeling towards old things, I love animated movies and Disney so I have to pay some respect to his film.
Next we will do a quick rundown on how this movie rates according to Rotten Tomatoes and IMDB:
IMDB= 7.8 out of 10
Rotten Tomatoes (Critic Rating) = 97%
Rotten Tomatoes (Audience Rating) = 72%
So looking at these scores it seems that critically this movie still means a lot and is a great piece of work for its time but it seems some people out there think like me and rate older things a little lower :)
Now for my person critique. Lets start with the characters. We have the huntsman, who is pointless and also his voice acting is miserable. Many of the characters in this movie have bad voice acting and I guess one can say its due to the time it was made in and to that I say I don't care. The prince, who is in this movie for a whole 3 minutes is pointless and stupid. Now lets move on to more important characters first we have the queen. She is awesome! But before I go on I have always always always always wondered what she is wearing. What is it? A hood? Is she bald? Gone gray and embarrassed? I mean if she was bald or losing hair it would explain why she isn't the fairest in the land I hope someone out there can tell me. Anyways she is one of my favorite characters from this movie she is evil, for who knows what reason, scary when she turns into that hag, and she is sorta hot... I mean umm..... So she is so scary my girlfriend won't go on the Snow White ride at Disneyland. Next we have the seven dwarfs. These guys take up so much time in the movie it should be called The Seven Dwarfs and Snow White. There is so much time of them just being funny and doing their thing. I love these guys and without them this film would be really boring. Now on a side note I always heard the dwarfs are representative of different stages of drug use or something like that (I have never done drugs so I may sound ignorant) like using cocaine or I dunno. Now some of them make sense but the one I still don't understand is Bashful. Does taking drugs make you shy? I don't get it. While we are on this side note when ever Sneezy was about to sneeze they would put their finger under his nose like this:
I just don't get it. Oh well. Now lets take a look at Snow White... well she is boring. Her personality can be summed up as being nice. Also he singing voice is one of the worst things I have ever heard, but we will talk about that later.
Now The story of Snow White is fairly simple yet it is entertaining enough with the help of some good characters. The movies moves quickly and yet slowly is parts as well. Now I don't want to spoil any of the plot since I hope by reading this blog you want to see some of these films I will just sum up the things I learned:
#1: Being pretty is important
#2: Women should clean to earn their keep
#3: Ugly = Scary/evil
#4: You don't need a good personality just good looks
#5: Don't talk to strangers
#6: Kisses fixes everything
I hope you take all of these to heart and apply them to your life today. Seriously though the story is ok for a kids movie.
Now lets do a quick look over on the animation and music. The animation is decent for a movie that old and when I was a kid I didn't think it looked that bad but compared with animation today it looks sub par. I don't care if it was awesome in its day, cause its my day now and I think its is just ok. The music is both great and horrible. Some songs are good and really make me remember my childhood, also the score is good as well. But then Snow White sings
AHHH it hurts my ears!!! Wow it also makes me miss Ke$ha.
Overall this movie is just average but as I watched it I was reminded how entreating an old Disney movie can be and nostalgia swept over me. When you look at how this movie influenced culture and film it is easy to see why this movie is in the AFI top 100. After reviewing this movie I give it a C+
Monday, September 12, 2011
The Adventure Begins....
Hello, I am The_Awesometeer and I will be partaking on a journey through the AFI Top 100 (if you do not know what this is please check out this site: AFI Top 100). Now I am a semi-busy person so I will differ on how many movies I will watch and review a week. It should always be at least one but I might be able to sometimes fit in two. As of right now I am hoping to do video blogs but we will see how that works out (if you follow my blog or twitter you will know when new reviews are about to come out).
Now for some background about me and movies. I like movies but I do not like old movies (i don't really have a good reason why) with that said I have seen only a handful of older movies (made before the 70s) in my life, needless to say I do not have much reason to hate old movies. Now I do like movies and for the past 8 years I have made sure to watch every movie nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture. Another thing you should know is though I enjoy movies I am no critic in fact I know hardly anything about movies. I pretty much know if I liked it or not, so do not expect a review from a movie snob.
Lastly lets talk about this blog. First-off like I mentioned I will be watching and reviewing the AFI Top 100 but I will not be doing it in any particular order (I just used a random number generator). I will be using my own secret formula (like Coke-a-Cola) to critique the film. I will then make a post about it giving it a final grade. As I start doing this I will then order the movies I reviewed by the grade I give them, eventually ending up with my own version of the Top 100. So please join me on this adventure and lets look at some classic American movies.
Now for some background about me and movies. I like movies but I do not like old movies (i don't really have a good reason why) with that said I have seen only a handful of older movies (made before the 70s) in my life, needless to say I do not have much reason to hate old movies. Now I do like movies and for the past 8 years I have made sure to watch every movie nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture. Another thing you should know is though I enjoy movies I am no critic in fact I know hardly anything about movies. I pretty much know if I liked it or not, so do not expect a review from a movie snob.
Lastly lets talk about this blog. First-off like I mentioned I will be watching and reviewing the AFI Top 100 but I will not be doing it in any particular order (I just used a random number generator). I will be using my own secret formula (like Coke-a-Cola) to critique the film. I will then make a post about it giving it a final grade. As I start doing this I will then order the movies I reviewed by the grade I give them, eventually ending up with my own version of the Top 100. So please join me on this adventure and lets look at some classic American movies.
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