MYST #6 Dallas Buyers Club

This movie was great! I really enjoyed watching this movie and I truly appreciated the effort coming from Matthew Mcconaughey.  He dropped 40 pounds for this movie and it was definitely worth it!  The character he played would not have worked if he had not dropped the weight.  One thing that I wish he had done was change up his voice a little but.  He still went with the classic charming voice he does in all his movies.  He plays a very sick character and so I was hoping he would make his voice a little bit breathier and a little bit weaker.  Unfortunately that was not the case but overall he was awesome!

Jennifer Garner also makes an appearance in this movie but the role was a tad smaller than I am used to seeing her in.  She was a tool for Mcconaughey's character in that he needed her to change his unaccepting ways.  He is a man of many prejudices and that starts to change when he meets her, among other reasons.  I also feel that the hate he felt from his peers, the people he has always worked with and known, changed his views on people who are different.  It gave him some perspective on how other people must feel when they are shunned and heckled the way he was.  This hate that he felt turned out to be the result of the ultimate empathy he showed with a gay man, whom he would work with selling drugs to people with AIDs.

This movie was really raunchy in it's writing and its ideas and its events.  The cinematography toned it down to a point that made it comfortable for us to watch it, but also still kept it real.  In risque sex scenes, they kept crystal clear sound, which balanced out the darkness and other censorship details.

There were a few signature moments in this movie where Mcconaughey's character's life is spiraling out of control.  They cut off all sound, aside from a ringing I thought it brought the scene to a whole new level.  It allowed us to feel the emotion through sight of the character's anguish, while taking out the moaning and whimpering that can sometimes make me cringe.  The camera work in these moments were very slow, which contrasted the very restless and mobile emotion that Mcconaughey was feeling.  perfect.

The sense of realism that I got from this movie was great.  The men in the town used prejudice language and it was definitely necessary to capture a realistic atmosphere.  Props to the writers on this one for being bold for the sake of making it real.  I put a lot of weight on that.  They told a story that was worth being told.  The adventure we take to drug dealers across the border are thrilling, law breakingly serious and surprising humorous at times.

Garner's character was not anything extraordinary and that's exactly what she was meant to be.  She was meant to be a simple, nice, and kind woman who was still tough enough to stand up for herself and make others listen (mainly Matthew Mcconaughey).  This is again, partially what changed him and seeing her not do too much with it was the sign of a great actress.

The lighting overall was well done.  The lighting match the mood of every scene.  The more serious one's were darker, and the ones filled with life were lit up.  When Matt and his gay business partner (who also has AIDs) set up shop in a motel, there is just enough darkness in the room to make it feel like eventually people from the government are going to come and check things out, but just enough light to make it feel like what they are doing is okay, allowing people from the outside to come in because they aren't doing anything wrong.

I would also be remiss if I did not mention the weight change not only for the movie, but also during the movie that Matthew Macconaughey did.  He started out thin, then got sick and went super thin, and then by the end of the movie it seemed to me that he was gaining a little bit of weight which fits because the meds he was on were supposed to be helping him.  Love it when they pay attention to detail.  

I give it 4 stars out of 5.

Check out the Trailer!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=fvMPU0WaPcc

MYST #5 Larry Crowne

I really enjoyed watching Larry Crowne, not only because it was co-written and directed by Tom Hanks (also starring Julia Roberts) but also because of the fun surprises in Pam Grier and Wilmer Valderrama.  These two were a great pair, playing both comedic and forceful characters.

Tom Hanks play a character that is forced to change once he (Larry Crowne) is fired from his job at U-mart (like Walmart) and he must go back to college as a middle aged divorced man who joined the navy right out of High School.  He would stay in the the Navy for 20 years after that, and eventually come back to a low paying job, and an overwhelming mortgage.  This makes me think of a very valid topic in today's news that Americans do not take care of their veterans.  Although the subject if subtly touched upon, I thought it was an important character point. 

The audience was given a few cool shots to admire, one being when the bike gang is all together riding through town.  They had to do a high-long shot to get all of the people on mo-peds together in one shot.  They also did a couple of shots at the beginning of scenes where they would just show the door before showing anyone and it would give the audience a sense of their surroundings.  Overall, there was nothing terribly special about the film work in this movie.  

There also wasn't too much to the sound of this movie.  It was mostly just dialogue but they made it work.  The style of this movie did not call for lots of sound effects and music, so I am glad they left all of that at the way side.  The moods of each scene were heavily reliant on the actors vocal inflection, facial expressions and body language.  

The dynamics between the characters were okay, but how they met I did not like.  Larry Crowne ends up getting into a 'gang' when he meets this girl in the school parking lot.  It was not creative at all.  She instigates a conversation by commenting on his mo-ped, and although it was plausible, it was not very exciting to watch.  Now all the sudden they are best friends.  Kind of random, but it was fine.  How they go from place to place with each other is extremely ordinary as well.  She says that she is hungry and he tells her they know a place. They go.  Whoop-te-doo.  What happens within the relationships are worthy of the screen, but the way they meet is far to plain.  

Another criticism I have for this movie is the beginning scene when he gets fired from his job at U-mart.  They were trying to make it humorous, but they came up short.  So it was awkward when Larry lost what he worked so hard to maintain and these people were joking around with him, making fun.  

I think it it very impressive to multi-task as a director and actor on set, and Tom Hanks did a good job leading the pack.  I have to give him respect for what he did.  This movie kind of felt like a one man show though.  Nothing behind the camera really stood out to me, whether it be the lighting or cinematography.  This was an average movie that is worth watching if you have nothing else to do.

I give it 3 stars out of 5.  Not bad.

FFS#2 - Francis Ford Coppola

Francis Ford Coppola formal Film Study

 

While watching my formal film study I had the privilege to view some of the best movies I had ever seen.  I thoroughly enjoyed the rest of the Godfather series, even the third one which was said to be the worst (which I can see why, but none the less a great film).  I also got to view "Tucker: A man and his Dream".  This was another movie that I got really invested in.  I noticed that all of Coppola's movies were telling a story about a man in business, and there is also a tie of trouble for the family in the movie.  The trouble in The Godfather being the other mobsters and the trouble in Tucker being the court and the big car companies. 

 

My favorite of the three was The Godfather part 2.  This movie had the best cinematic elements like when they would go back in time to show Vito uprising in NewYork and in Sicily. There was a yellowish feel to the screen.  It reminded me of the effect from the matrix because they do a green tint.  It did a really great job of letting us know that we were in the past. 

I also really like that they kept the emphasis on family, but they put a new twist on it.  When you have someone else running the family you get a completely different outcome.  I would say that Michael was more brutal than Vito was, considering that he killed his own brother. 

 

The Godfather 3 was nothing compared to the previous two, but still a very good movie.  This movie is basically where we get to see the down fall of Michael Corleone.  All of that bad karma is coming back to nip him in the butt.  I thought that some of the acting was overdone. When the daughter dies, it was uncomfortable to hear/watch the mother go through what she was going through.  There are many other better ways they could have done it.  They had some interesting shots though.  When Michael is in the kitchen and has that anxiety attack, they go to a long shot... It was held a little too long, but I still like the effect that it gave.  

 

 

There is always a sense of juxtaposition within these two movies.  Whenever something bad is happening there seems to be birds chirping in the background or they are in a church.  I like these elements, but by the third movie I would have liked to see them get a little more creative with it.  They were merely just using it as a device at that point.  A necessary point in these movies that must be kept is the enemy.  On paper I really like the ideas, but in the third movie I do not they executed the 'bad guy' very well.  It seemed kind of abrupt.  It was just like he decided "i'm going to hate you now". 

 

Even though the third Godfather was made in the 90s, I would say Tucker is the most contemporary feeling movie (1988).  This can mainly be attributed to the style and camera work in this movie.  They didn't experiment too much with lighting or long distance shots.  I didn't even notice anything special about these elements, and I think, depending on the movie, this can be a very good thing.  you don't always want to be thinking about the special effects and the pizazz.  sometimes you want to just sit back and enjoy the story that is being told.  If it's too in your face, it can be distracting.  Here it was like they weren't even there. 

 

For Coppola, it was all about getting the actors into a room and letting them do their thing.  You wouldn't see gigantic action scene where they are running through the streets of the city and they would need 12 cameras and a bunch of cuts.  They mainly just stuck to the  180 and had a lot of dialogue.         

 

overall I give..

Godfather 2: 4 out of 5 stars

Godfather 3: 3 out of 5 stars

Tucker: 4 out of 5 stars

 

 

Film Studies: Auteur Project #Dealin'

History:  I have taken the two most popular things from the 70's and put them into one movie:  Drugs and Mobsters (genre).  This movie is going to appeal to everyone because even even if the people going to see it aren't a mobster or a druggy (which very few weren't ;)) they will still come to see the big names of the 70's this movie has to offer.  There would also be a conformity factor.  People would flock to see this movie because of the popularity and glamorous image that these two elements have in the 70's.

The Story:  This is a tale of two Italian families in a power struggle in Seattle.  There is one family that lives in Seattle and has for a long time so they are in tight with everyone in the city.  This includes politicians, police, business owners.... and yes.. drug dealers.... who are dealin'... But when a new family comes to town with competitive deals and persuasive negotiating, this family challenges the authority the original family has in Seattle.  We see the struggle from the top ( between the two families) and we also see the story from the bottom between two drug dealers who are best friends.  But one of the friends ends up going with the new family, and the other ends up going with the old one.  This leaves their friendship torn, and their allegiances gray.  By the end of it all, the new family wins.  This is a political message to the people saying that if our federal government doesn't take our foreign affairs seriously, then other countries may bully us out of the equation, just as the new family did.

The Studio:  I am going to choose Paramount pictures to produce my movie.  They made some fantastic decisions in choosing Francis Ford Copola and the cast within the greatest mob movie of all time.  I cannot find a better pick for this.  American International Pictures will be my distribution company because they were the first to market towards teen age groups and we believe they will continue to develop their marketing skills.

The Cast/Crew:  The director for my film will be Francis Ford Copola because of his experience with Mob films.  The main actors of my film will be Dustin Hoffman, Robert De Niro, Robert Duvall and Jack Nicholson.  The reason for this is because they all have proven that they can play hard ball.  They will be ready for the rough life of Dealin'.  For my Cinematographer I choose Freddie Young.  We are bringing Freddie in from Britain because of his success in the 70's.  He has 3 Academy Awards!  As Cinematography can sometimes be hard to standout, those three awards really say something.

The Industry:  This movie will be rated R.  I do not believe children should be allowed to view the mature elements of this film.  Not only would it be morally wrong, but to show them the film would be confusing because they would not be able to comprehend the adults themes expressed in the picture.  There will be plenty of money to go around because adults 17 and older will find Dealin' very entertaining.

The Message:  As I mentioned before, this movie will be making a political statement towards our government and how we should be handling our foreign affairs.  I love the dynamic of this because we are getting the average Joe perspectives (the dealers) from the ground level, and we are also getting the perspective that comes from the seat of power, which in this movie is the head of the mob families.  This is not only entertain, but also teach.

MYST #4 - Sappy love story

For my forth pick, the movie Maid of Honor was on FXX and so I decided to give it a go.  This movie got one star and for good reason... It was pretty bad.

I did not like the screen play in this one.  Patrick Demsey plays a slick player who seems to have it all.  They make it abundant clear that he is 'the man'.  He gets all the girls and has the nicest car etc.. But there is one thing that he doesn't have. His best friend, played by Michelle Monaghan.  They have been best friends since college and I could have guessed that they were going to end up together from the very beginning.  When writing, one should not spoon feed the what's happening to the audience.  I think they were lacking in the mysterious department.  It's kind of like when a joke is made, and the audience can guess the punch line before it's even given.... It's not as funny.  There were also some unnecessary elements that were adding to the script like when they talk about the Duke (this is the guy Demsey eventually steal his best friend back from) and they say that they have arrived at the castle.  A girl says it's really big and the butler replies that it the smallest of the four, as they have one for every season.  The castle wasn't that impressive so that tells me they didn't have enough money to rent a legit one.  Also, they never show the other three so why bother?  Another aspect I didn't like from the writing of this was the meeting and introducing of our duke character.  This just got thrown on us out of no where.  They sit down for 5 seconds and at dinner and then the best friend says that she is getting married to him.  Very anticlimactic.

The Camera work here was average.  I was not wowed because they didn't do anything industry changing, but it wasn't so awful that I couldn't see what was going on.  There were close ups when needed and they kept there distance at times when needed.  I liked the shot they did of Patrick walking through the park by himself.  He had just lost her and so he went off to think to himself.  They kept their distance here and I think that this exemplified his inner-thought well.

The acting was a bit sub-par for me.  I thought that Patrick played a good "player" but when it came to his soft side, it felt a little weak.  It seemed really fake when he tried to win over his best friend from the Duke.  He said "I love you" and I cringed.  Michelle didn't have any sophistication to her character.  This performance was waaay too generic.  The character's personality was not fleshed out at all and that is partly her fault and partly the writers fault.

If you look at the pictures below, you will see why I did not enjoy the camera work that much.  The one on the right shows the couple together, and you can hear what they are saying, but I would have liked to have seen it a little more up close and personal to feel like I was a part of the conversation.  The same goes for the one on the bottom.  Let us be a part of the action!!
So the camera work was adequate, but nothing special.



Overall I give this movie exactly what it earned, which is one star out of 5.  Don't bother.

Rebel Without a Cause response: Question 1

I believe when you apply this movie to our generation the meaning changes, but indeed there is a meaning, and with that, an effect on the people who watch it.

This is a movie that analyzes relationships on a personal level and not just on the surface.  We see Jim's family interact with him.  We see the possible product attitude that kids can develop when parents are so oppressive.  I would argue in this day and age that Jim acts the way he acts (not saying that it is good or bad) because his parents are on the controlling side.  His mom decides to move whenever she feels like it or whenever Jim screws up.  This would definitely create a unique environment for a child to grow up in.

On the other hand, people probably would probably say that the parents are not being harsh enough.  This is because teens are being rebellious and depicted as immature.  This is understandable considering how society felt about their youth at that time.

There is something unusual about the process of becoming an adult. Teens are finding themselves and when they lost it can be seen that the succumb to conformity in any generation and in any environment.  We see the kids in this movie conforming with the rest of the school.  Everyone is following Buzz and not even Buzz knows where he is headed (ironically it is off a cliff).  Buzz even says he doesn't know why he is doing this but "you gotta do somethin".

This movie is definitely relateable in terms of situation and environment.  The writing is kind of awkward and the meaning mysterious, but in the end the setting is very real feeling, even though it was 60 years ago.

MYST #3 Anime Exploration!

For this post I decided to watch an anime movie.  I am not very familiar with the realm of animation but I thought that I would give it a chance!

I chose to watch a movie From the DragonBall Z series.  These movies come from what is said to be the most famous manga (comic) series of all time.  There are 13 movies in total and the one I chose is called Cooler's Revenge.  In this movie Cooler is an alien who has come to get his revenge on Goku (the main character) because he killed his brother Frieza.  Goku is a very kind and gentle person but he also does what needs to be done for justice.  Goku is also an alien but he has lived on earth ever since he was a little boy.  He comes from a warrior race called the Sayians.  His brother and him were apparently on the same level in terms of strength, but Coolers has now found a new form that is even stronger.  Now Goku will have to find a way to defeat the monster.

It is interesting to see how real the animation people can make the outside look so real.  I was actually very impressed.  The detail of the environment was very cool.  They have to create every frame that is seen in the movie and there were any different settings so they had to make a lot of them!  The effort was definitely there from that stand point.




some cool effects that I saw were when the characters would shoot their "ki" at one another.  Goku's special technique was called "kamehameha!".  This was a very powerful blue beam of light that he used to defeat Cooler.  Another cool one was when he transformed into a "supersayian".  His hair turned golden and there was also a gold aura surveying his body.

The lighting was very similar to that of the real world.  The sketches were darker for the more serious ones, and when he saves the day and all is well, the sun comes out and the birds are chirping!

The music that went along with the fighting and action scenes were pretty cool.  They were like a rock and roll version of their own theme song.  This was very unique to start with and I thought it played better than it would have if they had played something like hells bells or back in black.

 

The voices were really good!  As it turns out the voice of Goku is also the voice of another character called King Kai.  But their voices are completely different!  I would have never known that unless i had read it for myself.  They are so spot on with their voices it's freaky!  It sounds nothing like their voices in real life and yet they are so believable!

The character Goku seems to be the superman of Japan.  it was very interesting to see what they consider a hero.  To be honest, I thought he was a better character than superman. This character was much more fleshed out and the back story was much more complex which made it way more interesting for the audience members.  props to creator and writer, Akira Toriama for created such a cool character!  In the end, the good guy wins and that's what we want to see!  But what makes a great movie is when we think that the good guy might lose (and it's believable) and then he comes out on top.

I give it 3 1/2 out of 5.