Bliss Cavender (Ellen Page) is a girl living anything but a blissful life. While she has everything she needs to lead a comfortable life, she is stuck living the life her mother, Brook Cavender (Marcia Harden,) wants her to live. Her mother is a beauty pageant-crazy woman that believes that such pageants are the only way a woman can get anywhere in life. Bliss, on the other hand, cares nothing about the stereotypical ideas of beauty and wants to find herself in the way that she sees fit. The answer is unclear until she becomes interested in a contact sport known as Roller Derby, where two teams of girls roller skate around a ring in an effort to gain points. Bliss, who becomes Babe Ruthless, must face the challenges of competing in a sport as a legally underage player and showing her mother that the life she had picked out for her is not the one she wants to live.
Despite being a teenage feel-good movie, I really enjoyed this film. The lighting was very nice throughout the film and was even used as a cool element to separate the differences between Bliss and her mother's beliefs. The pageants were always very brightly lit and the settings often looked like those from films using the old high-class British style of living. The derby and party scenes, on the other hand, were more like what you would expect to see when you attend a concert. The names were fun, the action was exciting, and I felt like I learned something new from the film since I had never heard of the sport previously.
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Saturday, March 13, 2010
Blog Entry #6 Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief
Percy Jackson is your average troubled kid in a private school. or that's what he thought until his substitute teacher transformed into a nasty creature known as a Fury from Greek mythology and accused him of stealing Zeus's lightning bolt, the single most destructive weapon unknown to man. With the very skies and seas warring, Percy has 14 days to prove his innocence and return the bolt to its rightful owner.
This film was nice to look at; the lighting was great, the CG was done well, and it had an interesting variety of shots that kept the movie visually pleasing. Unfortunately, the movie suffered a pretty big lack of character development and rushed plot. The movie was mostly a composition of the main action scenes from the book it was based on and enough story to keep the flow in between. That being the case, the viewer never truly gets to experience what they expect to from the book. While this is a pretty big downfall, Columbus makes up for it by keeping us laughing with a clever soundtrack and fun one-liners the whole family can enjoy.
The Lightning Thief, directed by Chris Columbus, falls pretty nicely into the genre of fantasy. Its no surprise that Columbus is the director of this film, as he also directed the first three Harry Potter films, Night at the Museum and its sequel, and The Goonies 1 and 2.
This film was nice to look at; the lighting was great, the CG was done well, and it had an interesting variety of shots that kept the movie visually pleasing. Unfortunately, the movie suffered a pretty big lack of character development and rushed plot. The movie was mostly a composition of the main action scenes from the book it was based on and enough story to keep the flow in between. That being the case, the viewer never truly gets to experience what they expect to from the book. While this is a pretty big downfall, Columbus makes up for it by keeping us laughing with a clever soundtrack and fun one-liners the whole family can enjoy.
The Lightning Thief, directed by Chris Columbus, falls pretty nicely into the genre of fantasy. Its no surprise that Columbus is the director of this film, as he also directed the first three Harry Potter films, Night at the Museum and its sequel, and The Goonies 1 and 2.
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Blog Entry #5 The Boondock Saints: All Saints Day
MacManus brothers Connor (Sean Patrick Flanery) and Murphy (Norman Reedus) are hiding out in Ireland until they learn of a death that is meant to call them out. A priest has been murdered and the killer has written their names all over it by placing pennies in the eyes of the priest. The brothers must travel back to South Boston, clear their names, and find the men who took a life behind the doors of the church.
If you were a huge fan of The Boondock Saints, enough to watch it 10+ times, memorize the prayer, and quote lines from the movie with your friends on a weekly basis, be sure to greatly lower your expectations before you see All Saints Day. Where the first movie was witty and clever, the second was full of junior-high grade humor. In the Boondock Saints, the acting was phenomenal, the editing enhanced the film, and the plot ranged from anger and hurt to hilariously funny. In All Saints Day, however, the acting was terrible (regardless of the fact they used many of the same actors,) the editing was purposefully in your face to try to score a cheap laugh, and the plot wasn't even good until the last third of the film.
The worst addition to the film were two particular characters. Romeo (Clifton Collie Jr) was a Mexican stereotype, and acted as such the entire film. His presence was supposed to replace Rocko from The Boondock Saints, and he did a terrible job of doing so. He wasn't even the worst of it though. Eunice (Julie Benz) did the worst job of acting I've seen since black and white film. That's right, even worse than Robert Pattinson (Twilight) or Keanu Reeves (Matrix.) She was the FBI Agent of this film, replacing Willem Dafoe from the first movie. Where Dafoe magnified the investigation scenes, Benz got in the way. Her accent and nature were reminiscent of Sarah Palin, which nearly ruined the movie for me in the first place. During investigation scenes, she would stand in the middle of them trying to look sexy (she was pretty bad at that too.)
Overall, I spent years waiting on the remake of this film, and I was strongly disappointed with the work of Troy Duffy (Writer and Director) this time around. The movie was left open for a sequel once more, but this time I'm simply not excited about it.
If you were a huge fan of The Boondock Saints, enough to watch it 10+ times, memorize the prayer, and quote lines from the movie with your friends on a weekly basis, be sure to greatly lower your expectations before you see All Saints Day. Where the first movie was witty and clever, the second was full of junior-high grade humor. In the Boondock Saints, the acting was phenomenal, the editing enhanced the film, and the plot ranged from anger and hurt to hilariously funny. In All Saints Day, however, the acting was terrible (regardless of the fact they used many of the same actors,) the editing was purposefully in your face to try to score a cheap laugh, and the plot wasn't even good until the last third of the film.
The worst addition to the film were two particular characters. Romeo (Clifton Collie Jr) was a Mexican stereotype, and acted as such the entire film. His presence was supposed to replace Rocko from The Boondock Saints, and he did a terrible job of doing so. He wasn't even the worst of it though. Eunice (Julie Benz) did the worst job of acting I've seen since black and white film. That's right, even worse than Robert Pattinson (Twilight) or Keanu Reeves (Matrix.) She was the FBI Agent of this film, replacing Willem Dafoe from the first movie. Where Dafoe magnified the investigation scenes, Benz got in the way. Her accent and nature were reminiscent of Sarah Palin, which nearly ruined the movie for me in the first place. During investigation scenes, she would stand in the middle of them trying to look sexy (she was pretty bad at that too.)
Overall, I spent years waiting on the remake of this film, and I was strongly disappointed with the work of Troy Duffy (Writer and Director) this time around. The movie was left open for a sequel once more, but this time I'm simply not excited about it.
Monday, February 8, 2010
Entry #4 Rear Window
Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window (1954) was a set of stories viewed from a single perspective. Almost every shot in the movie was taken from the main character's apartment. Jeff, played James Stewart, is a professional photographer injured from his last assignment. When we meet him, he is wheelchair-bound for the next week in an apartment complex in New York. With two steps leading to the exit of his apartment, he is left with nothing to do but spy on his neighbors.
As the movie develops, so do the lives of everyone in the apartment buildings. His story is a question of whether or not to marry his girlfriend Lisa, played by Grace Kelly. As he watches the people around him, he is evaluating each situation and comparing their lives to his own. Each of his neighbors is in a different state of relationship status. There are newlyweds, a single man, a separated woman, a dancer, and an old salesman and his bed-ridden wife.
During this evaluation, Jeff watches the fighting of the married couple as a foreboding image of his future. As he begins paying closer attention to them, he notices suspicious behavior that leads him to believe the salesman has murdered his wife. As the movie progresses, his girlfriend and nurse become involved in the rear window investigation with him, continuously endangering themselves with the possibility of discovery.
As the movie develops, so do the lives of everyone in the apartment buildings. His story is a question of whether or not to marry his girlfriend Lisa, played by Grace Kelly. As he watches the people around him, he is evaluating each situation and comparing their lives to his own. Each of his neighbors is in a different state of relationship status. There are newlyweds, a single man, a separated woman, a dancer, and an old salesman and his bed-ridden wife.
During this evaluation, Jeff watches the fighting of the married couple as a foreboding image of his future. As he begins paying closer attention to them, he notices suspicious behavior that leads him to believe the salesman has murdered his wife. As the movie progresses, his girlfriend and nurse become involved in the rear window investigation with him, continuously endangering themselves with the possibility of discovery.
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Blog Entry #3 - Avatar
Avatar (2009), written and directed by James Cameron, is a difficult movie to place in terms of genre. Sure, you could simply say that it was sci-fi/fantasy, but the movie goes much deeper. It is a movie about war, romance, comedy, drama and its setting is one of sci-fi and fantasy, but somehow this movie gives us thoughts of our past, the present, and our only seemingly distant future.
The movie takes place in the 2150’s where Jake Sulley, a paraplegic marine, takes on a job that only he can do. His twin brother was a driver of a being known as an Avatar, a genetically cloned being designed to be connected to and operated from a remote location. With his brother deceased and the only remaining genetic match being his own, Jake Sulley must learn to operate the Avatar and learn the ways of the N’avi people from which the clone was based.
There are so many elements to this film that I found enjoyable. For one thing, you could clearly tell that the planets of Earth and Pandora are very different. They create one obvious difference through a gas that is poisonous to humans, but really it goes as deep as the very colors of Pandora are far richer than most of anything we see on Earth. If you could take the Northern Lights and paint the world with them, you would have something like Pandora. Also, the way of life the Natives live by is entirely different from the “civilized” way. It is very similar, however, to the ways the natives to the U.S. lived.
This is where the theme of the movie comes in to play. Avatar was a retelling of a story we all know should know from history lessons. The explorers arrive on a newly discovered piece of land, currently known as the United States, and begin to claim chunks of it before they realize it is occupied. In order to obtain more land, the explorers begin warring with the natives. A very similar story is unraveled in Avatar, but with many twists to keep the audience always wondering just what will happen next.
Saturday, January 16, 2010
Bride of Frankenstein, Review 2
Bride of Frankenstein (1935) is a horror/parody directed by James Whale. The movie opens with the lynching of Frankenstein's Monster, played by Boris Karloff, being publicly executed. Having survived the execution, the monster has a complete change of personality from his role in the original movie. He has transformed from a murderous living corpse to a misunderstood living corpse seeking friendship. When it is learned the monster has lived, Dr. Pretorius (Ernest Thesiger) pays a visit to Dr. Frankenstein (Colin Clive) in the night with a new goal in mind. Together, they are to create something new: the monster's mate.
This was a fantastic movie that made very good use of the technology available at the time of its creation. The black and white film accents the shadowy aspects of the film incredibly, where Whale shows us only what he wants us to see, when he wants us to see it. Karloff played the monster very well, from his simple murmurs and moans to the scene where he begins learning English, and even to the end of the movie where he speaks the movie's most memorable line just before devastating the castle in which he and his not-so-beloved were created.
Whale seemed to be delivering a couple messages to us throughout the film. For one thing, he told us that people are not to be judged by the surface of their skin. The monster was seeking friendship more than anything else, and the only individual capable, outside of his creators, of such friendship was the blind man. This tells us that the monster was capable of forming friendships, regardless of his hideous surface. This also shows us that the real monster of the film was not a creation of Dr. Frankenstein, but instead mankind itself. While the monster is out seeking friendship, a murderous mob of men is just a few steps behind him.
The other message this film showcased is that it is not our place to play God. Notice that all things controlled by men, that should have been controlled by nature, turned into complete failures. The creation of the monster wasn't exactly successful because he was designed to live among the citizens as another normal being. In actuality, he became an outcast of society that spent the movie seeking friendship. The creation of the bride had two failures. Starting with the obvious one, she died about five minutes later. The second failure was that she was designed to be a mate for the monster. In other words, man was creating an arranged marriage for her in an attempt to control love. This failed because she was horrified by the monster, just as everyone else was. Finally, when the monster destroyed the castle, he took Dr. Pretorius with him, meaning he was taking away the final link to Dr. Frankenstein's desires of resurrection.
Overall, this was a great movie to see for the first time, even if it was 70 years past its creation.
This was a fantastic movie that made very good use of the technology available at the time of its creation. The black and white film accents the shadowy aspects of the film incredibly, where Whale shows us only what he wants us to see, when he wants us to see it. Karloff played the monster very well, from his simple murmurs and moans to the scene where he begins learning English, and even to the end of the movie where he speaks the movie's most memorable line just before devastating the castle in which he and his not-so-beloved were created.
Whale seemed to be delivering a couple messages to us throughout the film. For one thing, he told us that people are not to be judged by the surface of their skin. The monster was seeking friendship more than anything else, and the only individual capable, outside of his creators, of such friendship was the blind man. This tells us that the monster was capable of forming friendships, regardless of his hideous surface. This also shows us that the real monster of the film was not a creation of Dr. Frankenstein, but instead mankind itself. While the monster is out seeking friendship, a murderous mob of men is just a few steps behind him.
The other message this film showcased is that it is not our place to play God. Notice that all things controlled by men, that should have been controlled by nature, turned into complete failures. The creation of the monster wasn't exactly successful because he was designed to live among the citizens as another normal being. In actuality, he became an outcast of society that spent the movie seeking friendship. The creation of the bride had two failures. Starting with the obvious one, she died about five minutes later. The second failure was that she was designed to be a mate for the monster. In other words, man was creating an arranged marriage for her in an attempt to control love. This failed because she was horrified by the monster, just as everyone else was. Finally, when the monster destroyed the castle, he took Dr. Pretorius with him, meaning he was taking away the final link to Dr. Frankenstein's desires of resurrection.
Overall, this was a great movie to see for the first time, even if it was 70 years past its creation.
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Bride of Frankenstein
James Whale made great use of the technology available when this movie was created. The movie was set primarily in the night, which gave the viewer many objects in shadow at all times. Whale played on this by giving us scenes where "the monster" approached people from the shadows, and them screaming upon seeing him. This is a key factor that tells us the monster frightens people upon sight more than anything else.
This is further played out when Frankenstein's monster enters the Blind Man's home. I couldn't help but laugh that the first three things he learns as a "civilized man" are a little English, smoking, and the drinking of wine. When the men locate the monster in the house, they start their pursuit once more. At this point, the monster of the film has changed. I feel that James Whale is trying to tell us that we are the monsters, judging people by their appearance rather than giving them a chance.
A second point of the film is made later on upon the creation of his bride. While trying to create someone who was to love the monster, it turned out she was frightened of him just as everyone else was. Frankenstein's monster says something that sticks out against everything else in the film just before he destroys the castle. "We belong dead." I believe he was trying to say that it is not our duty to play God or toy with the lives of others. The monsters were brought to life, but failed at their tasks. Frankenstein was not able to enter society as an accepted being. The Bride was not able to become a suitable bride for Frankenstein. Man tried to control things it was not meant to and failed, causing much more trouble than any they had before starting.
This is further played out when Frankenstein's monster enters the Blind Man's home. I couldn't help but laugh that the first three things he learns as a "civilized man" are a little English, smoking, and the drinking of wine. When the men locate the monster in the house, they start their pursuit once more. At this point, the monster of the film has changed. I feel that James Whale is trying to tell us that we are the monsters, judging people by their appearance rather than giving them a chance.
A second point of the film is made later on upon the creation of his bride. While trying to create someone who was to love the monster, it turned out she was frightened of him just as everyone else was. Frankenstein's monster says something that sticks out against everything else in the film just before he destroys the castle. "We belong dead." I believe he was trying to say that it is not our duty to play God or toy with the lives of others. The monsters were brought to life, but failed at their tasks. Frankenstein was not able to enter society as an accepted being. The Bride was not able to become a suitable bride for Frankenstein. Man tried to control things it was not meant to and failed, causing much more trouble than any they had before starting.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)