Basically, the way it works is that when the antagonist has a position of power over the protagonist, he will make some insolent comment that makes the protagonist sad. Eventually, the protagonist goes through his hero cycle or whatever adventures this movie calls for, and ends up facing the same antagonist again, only this time the power has shifted in favor of the protagonist. The idea is that now the protagonist will recite the insolent comment word for word to the antagonist in a sardonic tone, in an effort to give him a taste of his own medicine.

So for example, Timmy is walking to school when Bill beats him up and takes his lunch money. Then Bill goes, “Until you get stronger, people will beat you up.” Timmy works out and gets strong. Then he goes and beats Bill up. Then he goes to Bill and says, “Until you get stronger, people will beat you up.” Timmy adds insult to injury.

There really is nothing wrong specifically with this line. Maybe it is unrealistic for characters to remember the exact words for a whole timespan of a movie, or maybe the morality of the protagonist, who is supposed to be a role model with values, should not be lowered to the standards of the antagonist to using his words. But really I have no problem with this concept besides its repetitiveness.

It was in Batman Begins, when Morgan Freeman got his job back after being fired and fired the guy who had fired him. It happened in 300 when the king’s wife killed the guy who was being paid by Persia. You can find it in pretty much any major Hollywood movie these days and I am tired of it.

Believe it or not, there are plenty of movies that, despite being varied in actual qualities (in fact, quite often terrible), fill this role perfectly. There are certain general characteristics that make an ideal “white noise movie.”

First of all, it usually should be a light movie. Nothing that is even slightly intense at all. Usually a romantic comedy works best. Like I said, these aren’t movies I would watch if I was planning on intently watching it.

The plot should generally be very simple. All of the best white noise movies require simple plots that are explained early and often, and never change. For example, movies like Dodgeball (win a dodgeball tournament), Fever Pitch (Guy must decide between baseball and Drew Barrymore) and Joe Dirt (Guy with mullet goes from place to place talking to people) all work well. Basically, all the movies that television channels such as TBS, FX or Comedy Central would show on a weekend afternoon.

Perhaps the most absurd characteristic of these movies, however, is the fact that it really can’t be good. If it becomes more than mildly entertaining, and you become tempted to look at the screen for over a full minute at a time, than the movie is not serving its purpose. For example, the other day I tried to do my homework with The 40-Year-Old Virgin, and I found myself unable to keep from watching and laughing. (Side note: I love Dodgeball. The only reason why I don’t see this as too funny to watch is because I have seen it so often I know it basically line by line.)

So I’ll close this out with a list of some of my personal favorites:

Dodgeball
Fever Pitch
Hitch
Joe Dirt
Bubble Boy
Stuck On You
Napoleon Dynamite  

And honestly, after seeing it, I had the same idea of whether it was good or bad. There were so many things I liked, mixed with so many things I didn’t like, mixed with so many things I didn’t care about either way. Part of me wants to say it was great and part of me wants to say it was awful.

I guess I’ll start with what I liked. Robert Downey Jr. for one. Although I am in the minuscule minority of people that did not like Iron Man, he is a likable actor who stood out among the otherwise inexperienced cast. Many of the characters, including Charlie Bartlett himself, were fun to watch, and there was some good humor every now and then. Finally, a soundtrack by Beck never hurts.

Now for the things I didn’t like. First of all, it was annoying how they made it seem like every single human being has at least one parent that is a drug addict, or negligent, or has any significant problem that makes their child’s life miserable. Also, many of the characters were flat and seemed like they were acting like a cliche rather than a person, like “that bully with the mohawk,” or “that cheerleader.”

The thing that killed it for me though, and automatically took away any chance I had of really enjoying this movie, was that it was so unrealistic. I’m all for suspension of disbelief, and one of my biggest pet peeves is when people complain about a movie being unrealistic because what happened is impossible, but this was different. It wasn’t the events that made it unrealistic, it was the high school environment set up.

Basically what I mean is that I don’t care if its unrealistic because a normal high school boy gets abducted by aliens, but I do care if the seemingly normal high school boy’s high school is completely absurd when it claims to be normal. But this is especially bad in a movie such as Charlie Bartlett, which prides itself on capturing the high school experience. Movies like American Pie and Superbad had so much appeal, besides their hilarity, because they were relatable, not necessarily in the problems that they are having, but in the way the high school works. The classes, the conversations, the parties, are all similar to real life.

But in Charlie Bartlett, students were representing not the real high school experience, but some made up one where students didn’t go to class at all, spent the entire day hanging out in an outdoor student lounge with pool tables and televisions (something I’ve never heard of schools having, and could yell profanity at or do drugs in front of the principal without being disciplined in the slightest. And this unrealistic interpretation was what made Charlie Bartlett an unrealistic, forgettable movie.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

I thought from the commercials that Hancock was going to be very good. The plot about the superhero who didn’t really care about being well mannered or respectful and so on seemed interesting, and normally I like Will Smith. However, the plot advertised in the commercial and most of the scenes in the commercial took place only in about the first half hour. And it was a really good first half hour. After that it just went off on ridiculous tangents and threw all this information about the characters’ lives that were confusing and open ended. There were some entertaining moments throughout, largely due to JAson Bateman and Will Smith’s comic delivery, but overall, this movie was a huge disappointment.

Wanted (Rated R), on the other hand, was probably my favorite movie of 2008 so far. It’s fast paced and always entertaining, from start to finish. The action scenes were incredible, and there were so many awesome lines that were delivered so perfectly that it just gave me chills. I saw it as a mix of The Matrix and Fight Club (although not QUITE as good as Fight Club)  because it had the dark, intense yet kind of funny feel of Fight Club, mixed with the special effects and insane action scenes of The Matrix. It was a necesary movie for James Mcavoy to step into after doing Atonement to avoid falling into the trap of being a romantic movie star, and he nailed the role. The only disappointment of this movie was Angelina  Jolie’s performance, which I thought was weak.

The thing about Wanted is that it is the type of movie where in order to enjoy it, you have to want to enjoy it. People that go in expecting to hate it and try to pick out flaws might call it a bad movie. That’s because a lot of the plot device is a bit over the top and you really have to just go with it, let it happen, instead of thinking “That’s stupid.” So in closing, see Wanted, don’t see Hancock, and look for my next blog, which will hopefully be a review of The Dark Knight.

Garden State: The main reason why I like this soundtrack is because it introduced me to The Shins. I first purchased 2 songs of theirs from this soundtrack, and I now own three albums and an EP, all of which I love. It also introduced me to other personal favorites, such as Iron & Wine and Nick Drake (I am by no means giving Zach Braff credit for discovering these artists, because that would be extremely wrong, especially for Nick Drake, but I personally first heard them here). The music is all well placed and gives the movie a feel. The best example of this is the placement of the song The Only Living Boy in New York by Simon and Garfunkel, where the crescendos in the song translate flawlessly to the rising excitement in the scene as the characters go through their most important transitions in the movie. My only complaint is that, despite the diversity in artists and even the eras where the music comes from, it all sounds similar.

Forrest Gump: The Forrest Gump soundtrack is an awesome one. It doesn’t really bring forth new music like many soundtracks do, but rather uses music we all know to help create a setting. Its packed with pop songs from the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s, and it uses these songs as a tool to bring viewers through those time periods. My favorite instance of this was when Forrest first arrives in Vietnam and the song “Fortunate Son” by Credence Clearwater Revival begins playing.

The Graduate: Simon and Garfunkel rule. They took control of the soundtrack to this movie and pretty much created three songs that almost everybody knows: “The Sounds of Silence,” “Scarborough Fair/Canticle” and the infamous “Mrs. Robinson.” This is another great use of music to set a tone in a movie, but the way that the music and the movie interacted in the film was pretty groundbreaking for the time. This is a great movie and a great soundtrack and everyone should see it.

Pulp Fiction: This soundtrack is packed with catchy songs that really work perfectly with the type of movie that Pulp Fiction is trying to be, which is a 90’s throwback version of an over the top 60’s or 70’s fiction story. All of these songs are either pop songs from the 60’s or modern songs that either sound like or are direct covers of that music. Another cool thing is that on the soundtrack there are direct excerpts of dialogue from the movie, which kind of makes sure that this soundtrack really represents the movie and isn’t just some compilation of songs.

About a Boy: Badly Drawn Boy, who did the soundtrack, is jut an awesome band, and this album really boosted their popularity and made them somewhat well known, although they are still pretty much considered to be in the indie crowd. Some very good songs are on this soundtrack and I think the movie would have been completely lost without it. The songs are all very mellow and brings the movie down to earth.

Overall, I generally like when soundtracks aren’t just the director throwing his favorite songs at us. Really, what is important is that the soundtrack is a device by which the movie can really take off and work with. It should help move the plot forward and reflect what is going on. Like I said, my choices are up for debate, so your comments and definitely your suggestions, as I would like to expand my knowledge, are encouraged.