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.
Sunday, October 30, 2011
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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