Movies

    Remember when you were young and each and every movie you saw was your favorite as soon as you walked out of it. I remember a specific brief period where I spent weeks raving about the movies Titan A. E.  and Dinosaur, movies that are hardly regarded as anything special.

During this period, every single movie with either Adam Sandler or Rob Schneider was automatically hilarious and any poorly acted, simple plotted action movie that had at least one explosion was Oscar caliber. I also remember being confused when I saw poor reviews for Little Nicky and thinking how the critics are always wrong.

The interesting thing is, the change in taste of movies did not occur gradually, but was a chain reaction stemming from one film. One occasion to make comedies need more than farts to be good and make action movies need more than slow motion, or to make horror movies need more than decapitation by chainsaw and drama movies need more than some cheesy piano melody playing while the sun sets.

For me, it was when I saw Mr. Deeds. I didn’t see it in theaters, and my friends who had seen it were raving about it to me since they did. I finally saw it at this youth group event when I was in seventh grade, where they loaded around 50 children into a gym and put it on. And as it played, everyone around me was laughing, and I was just silently thinking that’s really not that funny.

All of a sudden, every comedy movie I had ever seen was put into a new perspective. I re-watched and re-evaluated many of them, and realized that many of them were not actually funny, and were too shallow of a humor to really even be good movies. It wasn’t every movie, I still find many funny, but there were so many movies I previously loved that I was suddenly able to take off the list.

From there, it spread into other genres. I realized that Jason X,  oddly one of my favorites at one point, was actually one of the worst movies ever created. I even needed to watch The Matrix, which had always been one of my favorites, to make sure it was actually good and not just good to the old me.

It worked both ways though. Many movies that I had considered boring were suddenly entertaining. I used to always assume that movies made before roughly 1990 were too hindered by their poor special effects to be good, but I managed to cross this idea out of my mind. North by Northwest, Vertigo, Chinatown and even The Godfather were all movies I have learned to love but the old me would have hated.

These movies don’t have much too do with each other besides the fact that I saw both of them in the last week and enjoyed them both. I guess the ominous tone and plot twists involving the supernatural being the essential cause of conflict in the movie also connect them, but really one is a classic and the other is just a respected thriller.

The Shining, which is directed by the legendary Stanley Kubrick, has become a standard for horror movie fans. The movie chronicles the Torrance family as they move to the isolated Overlook Hotel so they could watch it over the Winter. The hotel has a dark spiritual presence and it slowly takes an effect on each member of the family, driving them against each other.

Stanley Kubrick, who is considered one of the best directors of all time, masterfully adapted this Stephen King book for film. I’m a huge fan of the book, and when I first saw this movie a few years ago, immediately after my first reading of the book, I was actually a bit disappointed. After rewatching it with a fresh mind, I was blown away by the fact that I had disliked it at one point.

Some things in the movie that I really enjoyed…Some of the shots in the early scenes of the car going to the hotel among the huge mountains with the creepy music in the background really helped the idea of isolation set in. Jack Nicholson’s performance was also really amazing, and he was really able to perfectly depict the transition into insanity. My favorite part, which I’m not going to go too deeply into because of spoilers, but the ending was amazing. Too put it vaguely for those of you who have seen it, the photograph…

The Devil’s Advocate was definitely a less appreciated movie, although I think it is underrated. Generally, anyone who hears mention of it will say, “Yeah, that was a pretty good movie,” but it is never really given so much appreciation, although I think it deserves it.

As I was watching the movie, I actually reacted while sitting alone on my couch, something that I rarely do when watching films. It starts off seeming like its going to be a typical law movie, almost like a ripoff of a movie like The Firm, but suddenly the plot twists, taking it a completely original direction.

Each twist completely turns everything that has happened in the movie to that point and completely changes it, and they don’t stop. Especially in the last half hour of the movie. I can think of about seven gigantic plot twists that occur in this time frame, including the very last moment of the film.

Although I am pretty strongly against Keanu Reeves as an actor, and found him to be pretty awful, the rest of the cast was very strong. Al Pacino is obviously…Al Pacino. No more needs to be said. Charlize Theron, who is an actress that I don’t have much of an opinion on to this point, actually really impressed me in her role as the troubled wife of Keanu Reeves’s character.

Overall, just two awesome movies. I would highly recommend either of them, but neither are for the faint of heart.

When I first saw Scarface, I knew absolutely nothing about Al Pacino. Based on his amazing performance, since I didn’t know anything else about him, I assumed he was a Hispanic actor who naturally had that accent. Then I saw The Godfather and realized that he really is one of the greatest actors of all time.

Robert De Niro I actually first saw in his role in Meet the Parents, and I generally liked him. Then I saw some more of his movies and realized that he, too, is a great actor. His various Scorsese movies are all legendary and he has an impressive light side too, which he has shown in movies like Meet the Parents or even Shark Tale.

Still, despite all of their talents, they can’t make a bad movie good. Righteous Kill was basically advertised by saying, “This movie has both Pacino and De Niro. You should blindly follow because they are both extremely talented actors.”
And from what I hear, it was a pretty awful movie.

This has been a common trend among a bunch of actors. Some may argue that the actors are just making bad choices, expecting the movies to be good. You know this isn’t the case when the paycheck is big and when the commercials focus heavily on them, more so than the rest of the movie. Here are a few more examples…

-Samuel L. Jackson in Lakeview Terrace: If you actually look up the plot, you will see that he is actually the antagonist in the movie. Anyone have any idea who plays the main character or the main character’s wife, both of whom would be more important character? I didn’t think so.

-This is all Eddie Murphy has done in…I’d say 12 years or so. Although he is a special case because he wrote Norbit, arguably his worst movie.

-I’m not sure who still finds Adam Sandler funny, but no matter how bad the movie is, all the commercials have to say is that he’s in it and it will get a pretty good turn out
-Al Pacino AGAIN in 88 Minutes. Apparantly this movie sat on the shelves for 2 years at the studio because they couldn’t figure out how to market such a bad movie.

    This Summer, there were three summer comedies that really stuck out as the big ticket selling comedies: Step Brothers, The Pineapple Express and Tropic Thunder. While I haven’t gotten the chance to see Tropic Thunder yet (although I plan on seeing it soon), I was able to see Step Brothers and The Pineapple Express…on consecutive nights.

Step Brother was a Will Ferrell movie. That’s basically as simply as I can put it. It was ridiculous and over-the-top and basically featured Will Ferrell and John C. Riley running around, making immature jokes about private parts and such and overall acting like children. Which can be funny…but only for a while. Basically it was the type of movie where after ten minutes I was laughing hysterically, thinking this was going to be one of the funniest movies ever, but by the end I was thinking…hmm, they’re still doing that. I guess if this was the first Will Ferrell movie ever to come out, it would have been better received, but after seeing him make basically the same jokes and act basically the same way in Anchorman, Talladega Nights, Blades of Glory and Semi-Pro, I’m tired of it.

Seth Rogen, star of The Pineapple Express, had better do something fast to avoid
falling into the same trap of repetitiveness that has effected Will Ferrell. While I have loved Rogen’s performances for the most part, I have found that he is getting a bit repetitive too, and while I’m not quite tired of him yet, if he keeps doing the same types of roles, I see myself growing tired of him in the future. However, my love of the Pineapple Express proved that that day has not come quite yet. Although it lacked any major substance or any message (or at least one that would improve society), it did provide constant laughs, both from situations and dialog. The most surprising performance in the movie was James Franco, who contrasted his dark role as Harry in the Spiderman movies by playing a burned-out drug dealer, and was hilarious. Overall, it was a very funny movie, definitely worth seeing if you are a fan of that type of humor.

    I know a movie is great when I walk out of it and I have butterflies from how awesome it was. However, The Dark Knight was so incredible that I had sustained butterflies throughout the movie during my second viewing in three days. Take my previous blog about my top ten favorite movies of all time and add this one to it, because this movie definitly deserves the position.

The plot is smart and complex and keeps you entertained at all times, but forces you to emphasize with most characters. The action scenes are well done and many cool knew gadgets were introduced (As expected). Although this movie was quite long, (about 2 and a half hours) the time pretty much flew by and I was praying it would go on for longer when it started winding down.

The real story of this movie was the acting performance by the late Heath Ledger. I won’t lie, when I first heard that Ledger would be playing the Joker, I was skeptical and even a little disappointed. He dominated the role. They say that his obsession with the dark, twisted, Joker character may have lead to his death by accidental overdose, and after seeing how well he went into character, I can see how that is possible. There was no part of the Joker in this movie that was Heath Ledger in any way.  People were scared he would not live up to Jack Nicolson’s Joker, but Heath left him in the dust.

Overall, The Dark Knight is my favorite movie of 2008 so far, and possible my favorite movie of all time. I urge everyone who has not seen it yet to see it right away, because this movie is too good to miss.