Uhhh...

Okay hands down the worst movie I have ever seen! The Battle of Algiers was is black and white, they spoke french and it had subtitles. I don't want to read when I'm watching a movie, that defeats the whole purpose.

Okay, so they had some good camera angles in the tall buildings and high and low key lighting because of the shadows in the alleyways, but I didn't even think the acting was that good.

Well, maybe I'm ripping on this movie too much...but I never want to see that movie again.

I really don't have anything else to say except that the French guards are stupid for not searching the women when they go into the French quarters because that is who is blowing stuff up anyways, the women.

Test This You #&@#$! Quack

Memento might have been the coolest movie I've ever seen! However it was so, so confusing. But thanks to Mr. K I was able to understand it. I thought that the crew of Memento did a very good job editing. I really liked how the movie went backwards.

But I still don't get why the black and white scenes were in between the colored ones? That kind of confused me because it seems they could have just put those scenes towards the end before he takes the picture of Jimmy.

My favorite part was his memory goes blank after he beats and ties up Dodd. He realizes he his holding a bottle and says, "I don't feel drunk." I think that is a funny part. Well, I actually have more favorite parts of the movie that only Dan S. would know about...and because Memento is a sick movie...That's right Dan, you know what I'm talking about.

Whatever...I didn't like this movie

I thought this movie was so-so. I really liked Nick, the mechanic. He was SO big. But who would come up with a movie wear insane, ugly women are running around in just a trench coat. That's disgusting. She might have deserved the torturing for running away. However it is kind of sad. Anyways, I also liked the black car that Mike drove. I wish I had one of those. I definitely didn't like the ending. Which is weird because if you know me, you would think I would like it. But it was SO stupid! And why did they run into the ocean at the end? Whatever...I hope the next movie we watch is a little better...nothing against you Mr. K...

Baby...

I actually liked this movie too...baby. Double Indemnity was a cool movie. The best part though is when Neff struck a match with one finger, which he did about every minute. I didn't like however, Phyllis' hair and her attitude, it bugged me. Oh and there is no way one can fall in love with someone that fast like Phyllis did with Neff. But overall, I liked seeing a mystery murder. One thing I don't get...wouldn't Keys see Neff talking to Phyllis in the store?...think about it...baby.

Groundhog Day

I don't remember how many times I have seen the movie Groundhog Day. I absolutely love Bill Murray and Chris Elliott, Larry. The song in the morning got really annoying after about the first time but I guess that it can play a key role in the movie. Like telling the audience, even before seeing Phil wake up, that it is the same day. The song itself is repetitive too. But I like how in the end Phil needs to change his personality in order to change the day. I really liked watching it in class. Dan S. smells really bad.

Bringing Up Baby

For some weird reason I actually liked Bringing Up Baby. I liked how Susan and David came together in the middle of the movie and became a team. Even though Susan drove me crazy, I liked her character and how she reacted to David. I don't, however like how David reacted to her. He couldn't get away from her. But I do think that David played a key role. And I say ha ha to David's wife because she had no clue how to handle him like the way Susan did. My favorite character in this movie would have to be Gorge the dog. Just because he is smarter than David and Susan combined.

Too Long?

I have seen only one other movie directed by Sergio Leone, The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly. I know; I'm sorry.

But I would like to write about something that I noticed that the great director does in at least both of the movies I've seen in which he directs.

He seems to have had all the time in the world when he was directing becasue in both of the movies it can take forever to watch (not that's a bad thing). That time is usually filled up by having the good guy/hero stare at the bad guy forever. Other times when Leone will simply carry on a scene for a very long time. An example of this is the end of The Good the Bad and the Ugly and various parts of Once Upon a Time in the West, such as when Morton is crawling on the ground towards the end, and sees Frank.

However I'm sure Leone didn't do it to piss viewers off. I think, and an sure he did it to build up the dramatic affect and build up the characters.

Even though it can be long I think he still makes great movies. Well, I like the ones I've seen so far.

Creepy!

In the movie Strangers on a train, Guy is introduced to a creepy Bruno who seems to know everything about him. Bruno has this expert plan on how to murder two people. As the film carries on, Guy becomes more and more irritated by Bruno because Bruno killed Guy's wife and Guy will not kill Bruno's father.

I have honestly never seen one of Alfred Hitchcock's film before, sorry all you film nuts. So upon hearing Mr. Kloubachar and a few others in my 4th hour class talk about him and his masterpieces, I though picking a Hitchcock film was a necessity. I watched Strangers on a train(1951). Watching this film I couldn't get away from seeing Bruno Anthony, played by Robert Walker, following everyone around, it creeped me out.

So I did a little background research on him. After playing in a few movies his wife broke off with him and he really never recovered. He drank a lot and soon was arrested for hit-and-run charges and drinking charges. His ex-wife married producer David O. Selznick and Walker hit the ceiling. He was committed to a sanatorium and not released until 1949. I think this part of Bruno in the film is a great role for him, how sad that sounds. He is a psychopath in the film and in real life. I bet he didn't even have to act! However, despite the role of psychopath in movies, he played a verity of characters in comedies in the 1940s. I guess what I can learn about Walkers behavior on and off the screen is that even though he was messed up in the head, it can be a great role in film, and don't do drugs! Walker was on his way to stardom at the time he died of a dose of sodium amytal, which his doctor gave him because he was found in an extremely agitated state.

The other main character in Hitchcock's Strangers on a train is Guy Haines, a professional tennis player, acted by Farley Granger. Guy is an athlete annoyed by all the media and people bugging him about his personal life. The media says Guy had an affair with a woman and doesn't love his wife. She wants a divorce but when he goes to see her she had changed her mind.

Right out of high school Farley was recruited by producer Samuel Goldwyn. His first Hitchcock movie was in 1948 called Rope. Strangers on a train was one of Granger's first big hits and Hitchcock tried to "reveal the troubled nature that lay beneath the surface of a seemingly upright young man." I think this could teach us a lesson opposite to that of Robert Walker's. In this case Granger was a excellent actor and made a living off it. I think his childhood and the Great Depression made him the actor that he was.

I think we can learn from the creepiness of Robert Walker that some actors are just themselves in films and some aren't. In all, I thought that Strangers on a train was a decent movie and will probably check out some more Hitchcock movies.

My Darling Clementine :)

I'm honestly not sure what we have to write about for this post, so I'm just going to talk about the movie and hope it covers what we need.

Last time I talked about mise-en-scene. But tonight I'm thinking Arby's.....and thinking about writing about the Photography of My Darling Clementine. Many times Ford shows Wyatt at a low angle. I guess this is because he is the hero of this story and looks powerful when shot like this.

Another example of the photography is when the two Earp brothers and Doc start walking to the OK Corral. This is called an extreme long shot. It shows the characters and there surroundings and in this movies makes them look like lone cowboys ready for the fight of their life.

Ford does an excellent job with the photography in this film and I really liked it!

What makes Citizen Kane?

For this post I chose mise-en-scene. Not because I thought it would be the easiest, but because it could be the most important film technique in this film.

Let's take the lighting for instance. At certain parts of the film, the low key lighting hid Kane's face as to show power or the mysterious man behind the powerful newspaper company. Though creepy or scary, this shows us the type of person Kane is. Another Example of this is at the beginning of the film where all the reporters are sitting around doing nothing. All you can see is the sun rays shinning through the windows. You really don't know what to expect when you first see this scene. This could show that the reporters don't know that much about Kane themselves, which they don't.

Another example of Mise-en-scene is all of Kane's big house, statues, furniture, and other nick-knacks. Seeing this, stuff, you can tell Kane is at least somewhat wealthy without knowing what he does for a living. Personally, I think all of this stuff is a cover up to how lonely he really is. I think that if he had somebody to love or care for then he would care about them and not focus on collecting all that crap.

I think mise-en-scene has a lot to do with making movies and actually makes Citizen Kane the movie it is.

Nemo equals Perfecto

The family film, Disney and Pixar's Finding Nemo is a wonderful and brilliantly told story. Directed by Andrew Stanton, this film is one of the year's best.

Nemo, a small clown fish in a huge deep blue sea is captured by a diver off the Australian coast. His father, Marlin, voiced by Albert Brooks, goes looking for him, but doesn't know what lies ahead as Marlin's big adventure unfolds. Soon Marlin meets up with Dory, voiced by Ellen DeGeneres, who is an oblivious and forgetful little fish. They venture out to find Nemo but run into small problems here and there.

The cinematography used in this movie is outstanding, for an animation film. The colors on the fish and shadows of the dark, deep sea where Marlin and Dory mistakenly go seem like it's real. A steady cam seems to be used as you can follow the fish throughout the sea.

Nemo meanwhile, is in a fish tank in a dentist's office in Sidney, Australia where he meets new friends, yet still misses hi dad, even after being mean to Marlin and thinking Marlin is over protected of him. The personal conflict between Nemo and his dad sets the main conflict, Marlin looking for Nemo, up perfectly.

The cinematography wasn't the only thing that was great in Finding Nemo. The editing was great too. There were many montage scenes of the fish in the ocean as well as dissolves that tied each scene together perfectly.

With such a heart-warming story line and the perfectness of the cinematography and editing, no wonder this is one of the best films of the year.

Who Really Cares?

One thing has been on my mind since I saw Good Luck Chuck last Friday night. Okay so it hasn't been on my mind, but I needed something to write about and I thought this would cover it.

So I went to see Good Luck Chuck last Friday with a junior girl and some other guys. Us seniors got in with no trouble at all but the junior couldn't get in by herself. Luckily some old lady was going to see the same movie and told the usher that was checking I.D's, the junior was with her.



I told you this story because the people who work at the movie theaters can be a huge pain in the ass. The usher knew she was only 16( 4 days away form 17) but told her to find somebody at least 21 to get her in. First of all, if that's the case she going to see the movie anyway. And secondly, who really cares? The movie theater shouldn't care because it's their loss if she doesn't but a ticket.



When I went up to buy my ticket, the cashier asked to see my identification because it was an R rated film. I put my wallet back and within 45 seconds I had to take out my wallet again. That can drive you nuts if you went out to eat and had to take out your wallet, let's say 5 times, because the waitress was new and didn't know what she was doing.



Anyways, I guess where I'm going with this is that it's unnecessary to have the theater check somebody's I.D 2 or 3 times. Plus it's pointless to check I.D's if somebody is just going to sneak in anyway. Oh and the ushers don't really care either but they have to do this because if they don't, they might get fired. Well, I'm going to tell the manager at the Southdale theaters that Jim let in a 16 year old junior to an R rated film. That might show 'em.

Another Sad Excuse

I actually have never talked about or critiqued a movie or movie critic before, but this sounds like a fun challenge. The latest movie I have seen is Balls Of Fury (Robert Ben Garant), the maker of such movies Taxi, Night at the Museum, the Reno 911 movie and the show itself. All though I can't live without Reno 911, I was disappointed with Night at the Museum and Balls of Fury itself. Bell puts it that it turned out to be just as bad if not worse than the other movies made by Garant.

I read a review by Josh Bell of the Las Vegas Weekly. Like me, he too wasn't very impressed with Garant's previous projects and that led to an upsetting Balls of Fury staring Dan Fogler, a retired ping-pong champion, Randy. Randy saw his father beaten and killed due to betting on the ping-pong match. Years later, an overweight and out of shape Randy is picked up by an FBI agent, George Lopez, in order to catch a murderer, Master Feng (Christopher Walken).

I'm surprised I didn't read "I walked out half way through" by Bell because he wasn't very fond of the stupid jokes of ping-pong being a killing art.

All of this is really just an excuse for lots of jokes that treat ping-pong with the seriousness of an ancient killing art, a gimmick that gets old quickly.

And I totally agree this statement because it truly did get old. There is not much to go off of with the joke of an ancient killing art that is ping-pong. Bell also says that in the movie there is way too much time opening the plot of catching the killer (Walken). Randy has to enter a tournament in order to get an invitation to Feng's secret tournament which is really a cover for a mass production of weapons. Then he goes through training with an old master. I think that this takes way too much time up. But really, what else would have gone in that spot?

Well nothing really. And that is way I don't think it is that good of a movie. It has no depth. And besides, a ping-pong killer isn't good of a plot anyway. And like I said it got old fast.

Bell states that there was an attempt to be funny but those were ruined by:

pointless digressions for unfunny gay jokes and rivalries
that never pan out. The movie is packed with clever cameos from the likes of
David Koechner and Patton Oswalt, but the funniest isolated bits don’t add up to
a satisfying whole.

I once again agree with Bell and that he thinks that the wanna be comedy could have at least been creditable but loses all hope due to the ending. I thought the ending was too fast and didn't bring the plot to a smooth landing. I think Bell wants to tell us that movies like this come around once in awhile; but don't see them. They are just a sad excuse to go to the movies.