Batte Of Algiers- New York Times

The New York Times review of "The Battle of Algiers" is long, in depth, and boring. I am not knocking all reviews that are over 500 words, but in my opinion i think this review is poorly constructed. The review goes into way too much detail about the plot and the history and doesnt give enough plot analysis or ctiriscm of its faults, and also doesnt give his point of view on the camera angles or directorial ideas that i have found to like becuase of this class. Now, that ive said my peace about that review ill say a couple lines about how i feel.

The battle of algiers is a movie, that is impartial, has no protaginist, and breaks almost every fundamental rule of film making Mr. Klbuchar had taught us in this class. But saying all that i was very interested the entire movie and thought this unique style of filmmking was great, once, not something i could do on an every movie bases. most of my movies i like to have a true protaginast, someone i can root for, and also a bad guy, someone the good guy is trying go against.

In all i enjoyed watching this film becuase it was something new to expierence, but im still glad that i dont have to see this syyle of movie every friday night in theatres.

Momento...wait Memento.

In Memento, a movie starring Guy Pearce (Lenny), a man (Lenny) is on a quest to find the murderer of his wife and avenge her death. During her death the murderer whacked lenny across the head and made him have a very rare form of amnesia where he cannot create new memories. The interesting this about this neo-noir is that it is told backwards. We start the movie with the killing of the killer but every scene is what previously happened RIGHT before the scene we just saw. it was very confusing to watch over a 4 day span (especially with thanksgiving break) but i still LOVED the film and it has been my favorite so far in art of film.
What i wanted to talk about in this blog was how this movie makes us think. It happens a few different way, msot obviously the way the story is told. If ou dont keep tabs or are actively involved with the story then there is 0 chance you understand the plot. So you have to think to even follow with the movie (Katie Rosecrans). Deeper then that this movie makes us think about humanity, what we can do for happiness. At the end of the movie (or the beginning) we see Lenny kill someone who he believes raped and murdered his wife. Immediately after he and his friend chat about how all of Lenny's life is a lie becuase without the purpose of revenge and anger he has nothing to live for so Lenny conditions himself to belelvie that was the killer, immediately forgets it and creates a new killer to find. Now i personally belvieve that this is an exaggerated view on human nature. Like teddy says "so what, you lied to yourself to be happy. Everybody does it". I 100 percent agree with that statement. Whether it be if were happy with our place in society, like our jobs, or even our relationships. as humans our life goal is to be happy "who cares if you dont know some of the detals".

Kiss Me Deadly

Kiss Me Deadly was an amazing example of Film Noir for our generation. In Kiss Me Deadly, the main character, Mike Hammer, is a Private Invesigator who gets pulled aside by a hithchiker which leads to a crazy chain of events. Eventually leading to what you can infer, his death. The reason this movie is such a good Film Noir is becuase it has all the elements that a great Film Noir should have. It is dark in its plot...as well as its lighting, it is black and white, and the movie itself unravels like a great film noir should.
Some great unique things about this film that other Noirs of its time didnt contain, were the multi-plot aspect of the movie. Most older film noir, and older movies in general are focused on one main point and never really deviate from it. This movie on the other hand, has the girl, the death, the box, what the box is for, who wants the box, the hithchikers "roomate". this movie is years ahead of its time in the plot and way it was developed. Also the imaganation of this movie, during the cold war, with the sci-fi part with the hot, (radioactive) box.

In all i really enjoyed this movie and hope i got the most out of it i could. It was a great example of film noir adding on from Double Indeminty.


(im on safari so thats why my post has no bold or anything cool like that)

Double Jeopardy...I mean Indemnity

Double Indemnity, a film directed by Billy Wilder is a great example of Film Noir. This movie is considered one of the 1st and best Film Noirs of all time. This film is a great example of Film Noir because it has all the key elements Film Noir are supposed to have. It is black and white, it was a very dark plot and time, and was very edgy for its time. in all i liked the film because the plot kept me entertained and the editing and music were unique. on the other hand the acting was...sub par...and some of the camera angles were...awkward. i thought the movie in whole was a great example of how Film Noir should look and sound and Wilder did an amazing job with the materials he had in 1944.

Groundhog's day...

This blog assignment doesnt really have a real rubric so im going to just give my thoughts on the movie "Groundhog day" which we watched in Art of Film. This movie is starring Bill Murphy as a cocky, mean, overall dick reporter who was sent to do the reoprt on groundhogs day in the small town of Puxatawney Pennsylvania. His day never really ends because every morning he wakes up to the same song, at the same time, on the same day. Although the plot is completely unbeleivable, the movie as a whole was very good. I really enjoyed almost the whole film. some positive things about it were the fact that it was very funny but not over the top, always kept me entertained and intrigued, and gave pretty good life lessons overall that relate to most peoples lives. for every positive, there is a negative. some things i did NOT like about this movie was the random characters who were introduced but were short lived and annoying (ned reierson, and the 1st chick who he tried to...have relations with). also in the middle of the movie before he started only doing good deeds it was very long and repetitive and lost my attention for about a 15 min span.
overall i rate Bill Murray and the movie as a whle 3 stars out of 4. it was very very good, i liked it alot and would reccoment it to everyone but not an alltime classic

( i know the pic above is from caddy shack...but c'mon that movie is tight...)

Bringing Up Baby

Normally i come up with a witty title that moves around the title of the movie just for creative purposes, an example being "Pan's Labyrinth". Bringing Up Baby on the other hand does not even deserve that. This is not going to be a 500 word rant about how much i hate this movie...this blog post will be different. I might even point out some positives i saw in this movie.
In all the things i liked about this film was Carry Grant as David. I thought he was funny, clever, and played a very good counter part for Susan (Katherine Hepburn). Also another good thing about the movie was the plot in whole. i know its a little ridiculous but its a very good example of a screwball comedy and re-done it might actually be funny
Now for the negatives...and o, there are sooo many. I strongly disliked this movie...but the one reason i will talk about is the annoying, obnoxious, stupid, clumsy, loud Katherine Hepburn. Her character almost made me want to hurt myself so i could take my eyes off of her. Thank god this movie is over.
In all i am glad i saw this movie so if i ever am in a jam and saying "Could this be any worse.." i will remember the time we watched Bringing Up Baby in Mr. Klobuchars art of film class.

thanks Klob..

Seacrest out.

Once upon a time...in a land far faw away

In Once Upon a Time In the West directed by Sergio Leone, there were many key scenes that helped plot develpoment, character development and were key to the story. But the scene i am going to discuss was the showdown between Harmonica (Charles Bronson) and Frank (Henry Fonda...Janes Fonda's dad). This scene was a long anticapted showdown between good and evil, right and wrong, and protaginast vs antagonist. The wole movie leading up to this scene was about Frank wanting to become more then a cowboy, wanting to become a business man and take over the land from Jill McBain (whose husband was murdered earlier in the movie for his land) and make a town on it. Harmonica comes in and for quite sometime you think he is protecting Jill, but in actuality the only reason he sticks with her is to get to Frank. Harmonica even killed all of Franks men becuase they were about to turn on him and Harmonica decided to kill all of them just so he could have the pleasure of doing the deed himself. He stick by JIll becuase he knows eventually Frank will come for the land. The whole movie culminates into one final scene (a tribute to the OK Corral scene in "My Darling Clementine") where Harmonica and Frank showdown outside of Jill's house where the train is being built. Rather then in most movies where it goes by quick and you see the loser die in a flash and the winner grab the spoils, this film draws it out for a very long period of time. They meet in the blistering western heat, and circle eachother round and round till they both stop and talk. They talk about the "last of a dying breed" being the TRUE man, not the business man. You see them shoot at eachother and the camera pans up the body of a dying man and you see his face...its frank. then you know Harmonica was the victor and shot frank. As frank was dying he looks up at him and says "tell me...who are you?" Harmonica says nothing and it flashes back to when he was young and you see him holding up his dying brother and Frank laughing. this is significant becuase you now know the true reason Harmonica has a vendetta against Frank.
The significance of this scene as a whole is immeasureable. Without this scense the movie doesnt make sense. Without this scense this movie is an awkward, long, plotless movie with random killings. This puts everything in prespective and i thoroughly enjoy this movie as a whole because of this one scene.
On a 2nd note i think Leone is a genius for making this movie a suspense ending rather then knowing his intentions the whole time...i think it really brings the movie to a different level.

Labryinth's Pan

In Pan's Labyrinth directed by Guillermo Del Toro acting is a critical part of the movie becuase the plot is so original and unbelevable, the actors NEED to be convincing or else no one would beleive the story. In Pan's Labyrinth the main character, Ophelia, moves to the spanish country side because the captain wants them out there. The main character in the movie was a little girl named Ophelia played by the actress Ivana Baquero. I thought Baquero was perfect for the role becuase of her amazing narration voice, and her innocence that just exploded from the screen. "Del Toro says he was "scared shitless" in casting the right actress for the lead role, and that finding the 10-year-old Spanish actress was purely accidental." It was reported that the role was originally written for a girl who was a little younger then Baquero, who was 11 at the time of shooting. The role was written for an 8 year old with curly hair, but Del Toro was quoted saying "But I loved her first reading, my wife was crying and the camera woman was crying after her reading and I knew hands down Ivana was the best actress that had shown up, yet I knew that I needed to change the screenplay to accommodate her age." Del Toro knew he had to have her in the movie and sent her comics, fairy tales and other materials to help her get into the true Ophelia Character.
Another vital character to the movie was Captain Vidal, played by Sergi Lopez. Lopez was again perfect for the role of Captain Vidal was becuase Captain Vidal was sane, but had signs of crazyness and overall was a jackass to Ophelia and everyone else he was around. Sergi Lopez showed this slight crazyness in his acting and exuded arrogance whenever he walked which described Captain Vidal perfectly. Del Toro was once again quoted saying about Vidal "Vidal is deranged, a psychopath who is impossible to defend." and Lopez portrayed that more then perfectly and his subtelties were nesacary in such a character.
Doug Jones, was the character who played both The Faun, and The Pale Man. Jones had worked with Del Toro twice before in both Mimic, and Hellboy and emailed Jones over a year and a half before filming saying you HAVE to be in this movie. Jones accepted not knowing the script was in spanish was forced to learn spanish fluently even though in editing they dubbed his voice anyways. Jones efforts didnt go unnoticed tho "Del Toro decided afterwards that he still preferred to dub Jones with the voice of "an authoritative theatre actor," but Jones's efforts remained valuable because the voice actor was able to easily match his delivery with Jones's mouth movements" which made the story much more beleivable and helped the story move along fluently. Overall, the acting was my favorite part of the movie and without the flawless acting from the people i spoke about and other cast members this movie would not have been as awesome as it was.

Sources http://imdb.com/title/tt0457430/ and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pans_labyrinth
(im on a Mac, so i cant hyperlink, or fonts or anything, sorry)

Western's...hooray?

In class we watched a film from a genre i had never personally seen before, Western. My grandpa never stops talking about them becuase how fast paced and plot-less these shoot em up movies are and how you can fall asleep in the middle and wake up and not miss any important parts becuase there are none. So i waled into this unit only expecting the best, a fast paced plot-less action film with crappy special effects and editing. What i got on the other hand was a slow, very plot based movie with about 7 minutes of true "suspense" action.
In "My Darling Clementine" there was a specific scene where the two main characters meet and walk into a bar looking for a shakesperean actor doing the monologue "to be or not to be". He is forced to perform by a gang of hooligans in the bar and cannot finish the entire monologue and asks a man by the name of Doc Holliday to finish the quote. So far we know Doc as a man who is sick, fearless, drunk, and impuslive. But to the surprise of everyone in the room he finishes the quote without pause or hesitation and shows that even a man who was thought to have no culture, and only be a rebel, could be a scholar.
This movie is pretty classic in the plot, but original becuase of the time it was made and the style of movie it is. The plot very simplified is a man wandering, wants revenge on someone, gets a little sidetracked, meets a girl, and gets his revenge. I could name about 2 dozen movies without thinking that have a plot pretty similiar to that. But its the style and time period this movie did this that makes it so original and unique.
If i had to rate this movie it would not be a very high score on my ratings system, but i am biased. Coming in with preconcoeved notions of a western and getting the opposite of what i was expecting was a negative, but also being a member of the younger generation im not sure i can truly appreciate what a classic this movie might be. overall i thought it was just fine, but expected alot more, but as i said earlier...i think my opinion is a little biased.

Citizen's Kane

The one aspect of Citizen Kane i would like to point out is the sound. I thought the sound and music of Citizen Kane was used masterfuly. The music motif used for Kane i thought was perfect for the time and changed tempo and mood outstandingly when the attitude of the film changed. Also how Kane's voice always seemed to have a hint of echo in it, no matter the room he was in. Welles made it seem as though his voice was always powerful thus making him seem more powerful. All of the sound in Kane i thought was done perfectly and without the sound and other musical attributes this movie would not have been as good.

Where's Nemo?!

For my Art of Film blog post, i chose to watch the movie "Finding Nemo" directed by Andrew Stanton. This film is a Disney movie which instantly became a classic, the minute it was released in theatres. The story is about a clown fish named Marlin (Albert Brooks) who lost his entire family when barracuda's attacked his ocean home and eat everything. Marlin thought all was lost, when he found one last egg laying on the coral reef floor, Nemo. On Nemo's 1st day of school, he ventures off into the ocean and gets taken by scuba divers from Sydney, Australlia. Mariln immediately goes after his son and will stop at nothing to find where he went. Along the way he met a friend named Dory (Ellen Degeneres) who forgets everything almost immediately after she learns it. Together they go on a journey trying to find Nemo and get into some crazy adventures along the way.
Some interesting things about this movie which i enjoyed were the way the fish spoke. Rather then being very cartoony and geared more towards the young, I thought the speech in this movie was very normal. I enjoyed this becuase i could relate more to the characters, rather then always being disrupted in my thoughts by the use of very childish words. Another thing i throughly enjoyed was the "camera" movement in the film. Although this film was animated it still used very unique ways for us to be able to see the fish. Some examples were when Dory and Marlin was gobbled up by a whale, it had about 5 minutes of the movie taking place in the whales mouth...a scene that would have been extremely diffcult to do if it were a real movie, but since it was animated it could go places other shots could never be able to go. Another example is rather then most movies now a days when they need to change views they just cut to a new angle, Finding Nemo and Andrew Stanton decided to "pan" the "camera" along the water. I found this very nice becuase it was very smooth and i never felt like i left the characters becuase we were always looking directly at them, even if moving to a new place. Also just as an extra note, the animation was AMAZING and very very realistic and i thought that was a super-plus to add to the realism of this movie.
I looked, and looked for a negative to write about in this review, but i couldnt. I thought this movie was perfect for what it was trying to do. The only thing i could try and knock it on is maybe it was a little too young and cute for my liking, but it was an animated movie and their target was families so i completely understand there logic in doing that and cannot knock it for such a petty reason.
So all in all i thought the music, the acting, the animation, the story, and everything else imagineable you can review went perfect and Finding Nemo is a spectacular film for all ages.

Random Movie Blog

I want to blog about some upcoming SWEET-looking movies. My number one would be American Gangster with Denzel Washington and Russel Crowe. I honestly think this movie could be the next american class from how the previews look. I cant wait for this movie to come out i hope eveyone will see it so i have something to talk about that next monday after it comes out. The next film i saw a preview for that looks pretty sweet is the guy from Lost (whose name escapes me) new film which comes out in January which isnt tilted yet. The name i saw for it might be "Cloverfield". The preview is a party for someone who is about to go away to some place abroad and this flying burning thing comes down and is like an earth quake and these things come hurling at them. It looks like a godzilla movie but way sweeter. I hope you comment about other upcoming films that look awesome.

-Mack.


(trying to post pictures of both posters but being on a Macintosh sucks for this website, sorry)

Critique the Critic

I read the review of one of my favorite movies of all time "Goodfellas" from the critic Joseph McBride. This is the link to the review "http://www.variety.com/index.asp?layout=Variety100&reviewid=VE1117789056&content=jump&jump=review&category=1935&cs=1&p=0"

Joeseph Mcbride wrote a lengthy review praising and also criticizing this movie. Towards the beginning of the review it was all praise. McBride talked about how amazing Scorscese is as a director and comments about how this is one of his best films ever. Beyond that, McBride talks about the plot and describes it in full detail about Ray Liotta's character and the moral struggle he goes through as a "nobody in a neighborhood full of somebodies" and how Liotta must do what he has to do to make his way. McBride keeps going on and on throughout the review about only the 1st half of the movie and how Liotta grows as a character and how Scorscese makes you think you that the protaginast will have to make a desicion between life or death...but ends up flipping the tables on you and changes almost the whole story line becuase of Liotta's pinch inbeetween jail and freedom. McBride ends up starting to compare "Goodfellas" to the american mob gangster classic known as "The Godfather". "but since "Goodfellas" doesn't share the "Godfather" films' examination of the Mafia’s evolution in reaction to social injustice, the conflict has no weight and Scorsese misguidedly abandons his focus on the mob community to tell the unrewarding story of a lone wolf." McBride was just quoted saying a major difference (and Mcbride considered a flaw) was that Scorscese abonded the evolving mob drama and changed it into a story about a man on his own and who has to make a heavy desicion, whether to put his godfather and boss in jail...or go to jail himself. Mcbride also talks about the style in the 2nd half of the movie and is quoted saying, "The film's style in the second half turns into a frenetic, feverish mimicry of the wasted-looking Liotta's coked-up mental state" and also comments another flaw about the film, McBride thinks DeNiro is a MUCH more interesting character then Liotta and DeNiro doesnt get enough screen time. I completely disagree becuase i think Liotta's character is the confilct throughout the whole movie and without him the story has no through character and would not be considered Scorscese's best picture.
All in all i somewhat agree with Mr. McBride's review with a few minor disagreements in negatives, but we agree in almost every positive comment the critiquer made.


http://dmackdaddy.vendioweb.com/badguys/Gfellas/goodfellas.jpg (supposed to be picture html, not sure whether it worked though)

LOOK HERE!!!

The only reason i have attracted you to my blog is to try and spread the word about the movie "How High"....it is awesome and underrated and next time it is on comedy central make sure to Tivo it. Your welcome in advanced


Have a wonderful day


P.s. Henry is wrong...BioDome is AWESOME!!!