Tag: Movies

Posted in Movies

My Favorite Coen Brothers Films

Posted on by Godfather

After seeing most of their movies, I really doubt that these directors can ever make a bad movie. I don’t care how bad a trailer of theirs look because they have never disappointed me in any of their films. Their genres range from thriller, to dark comedy, to drama. Each of their films, to me, are special in their own way. Here are my top 5 of their movies.

5. Raising Arizona

If you like comedy, I really don’t see how anyone can not like this movie. Nicolas Cage stars as a criminal who marries a prison guard, but they can’t have kids. So when a furniture seller has 5 kids, they decide that that is plenty for one person, and they go ahead and take one for themselves. Filled with hilarious moments and some serious ones, it is one that I think that everyone could get something out of.

4. Blood Simple

Their first full length film was this dark thriller, and it really is very good. No comedy, but a very complicated story and scenes that will just give you the goosebumps make this one a great movie. Blood Simple is a raw, violent film that should be seen by those who liked No Country For Old Men, they are both very similar.

3. The Big Lebowski

This is really a love or hate movie, since the humor is on the R rated side. Drugs, violence, and sex are all used to get us to laugh, and it works well if you can find humor in these things. While Jeff Bridges plays a great part as “The Dude”, John Goodman stood out as the best character playing a Vietnam veteran who references it every time he’s on-screen.

2. Fargo

How could someone make a Coen Brothers list without mentioning Fargo? It’s a comedy, thriller, and drama all mixed into one crazy movie. Again, this is a dark comedy that makes you laugh when you normally wouldn’t in real life. While it can get very depressing, there are also some scenes that just can make your day. Fargo has everything that a good film needs, and all of it is done perfectly.

1. No Country For Old Men

Tense. This is what you feel when watching this classic story. Much like Blood Simple, No Country is raw violence, but everything happens in this movie for a reason. People hate the ending, but it definitely would be on my list for favorite endings. Just think about everything that happens, and know that the “main character” really isn’t what the story is about.

Posted in Movies

What are some of your favorite movies?

Posted on by Godfather

Ok, instead of a regular blog today, I just want to find out which movies everyone likes the best. I’m doing this so I can try to write blogs that are more to your interest. So, here’s my top ten (currently, it changes a lot since I watch a ton of movies).

1. Fight Club- Can’t find anything wrong with it, to me it’s a perfect piece of filmmaking.
2. Casino- Wonderful movie, after watching it a few times it does seem to be a bit long though.
3. Die Hard- Best action movie ever made, every guy NEEDS to see this one.
4. Gladiator- Everything is amazing in this movie, especially the acting an music.
5. Braveheart- A lot like Gladiator, they’re almost the same movie.
6. Rambo First Blood- Another great action movie, even without a lot of killing!
7. The Shawshank Redemption- Perfect ending to an emotional movie.
8. The Godfather- Classic, like Gladiator in respects of perfect music and acting.
9. No Country for Old Men- The ending is great, don’t listen to the idiots out there.
10. Memento- Very original piece of art by Christopher Nolan (The Dark Knight).

Posted in Movies

Top 5 Worst Things That a Superhero Movie Can Do

Posted on by Godfather

With so many new superhero movies coming out on dvd, and more coming next summer, I thought its a good time to talk about what plot devices they should stop using in these movies. Disclaimer: I LOVE MOST OF THESE MOVIES, I’M JUST SAYING HOW THEY COULD BE BETTER.

5. Bad lead actor choice

Worst offenders- Batman and Robin, The Incredible Hulk

Did it right- Iron Man, Hulk

 We all know George Clooney in different ways, but one person that I don’t think he can play is a crime fighting guy in a suit. When I just saw one scene with him as Bruce Wayne, it just didn’t seem believable that he actually would hit someone. Another example of this to me was The Incredible Hulk. Edward Norton is a great actor, but I really can’t see him playing Bruce Banner. They should have kept Eric Bana, who I think fit the role perfectly.

 

4. Too weak of a Villain

Worst offender- Superman Returns

Did it right- The Dark Knight, X-Men 1,2,3

Lex Luthor is a good villain, if Superman was really a contender in knowledge bowl and they came from rival schools. When I think of a superhero movie, I want a guy who can punch for punch be as good or better than the hero. Not somebody that uses their high I.Q. to kill them. We want fights, not intellect battles.

 

3. A weak end battle

Worst offenders- Iron Man, Hulk

Did it right- The Incredible Hulk

At the end of the movie, I want to see big hits and big explosions. The hero and villain should both be at their best, and the fight should show their pure strengths. Iron Man instead, had him hit the other guy once, then he pretty much just played keep away. Hulk just didn’t have a good enough villain, which led him to be drowning, not hitting the guy all over the place.

 

2. Too much love

Worst offenders- Spiderman 1, 2, 3, X-Men 3

Did it right- Iron Man, The Dark Knight

The target audience of these movies is action junkies, and we could all (with the exception of most girls) care less if Peter Parker is going to get the guts to be with Mary Jane. Now if they put comedy in there to go along with the love (Iron Man) then its fine, but don’t make me see a sappy love story when I’m going to see guys hit each other.

 

1. Not enough action

Worst offenders- Hulk, Iron Man

Did it right- The Dark Knight, The Incredible Hulk

If you’re making a superhero movie, cut to the chase and show us what we want. In Hulk, there was about an hour before a good action scene came up. Iron Man also only had 2 good action scenes, since the end battle was pretty lame. They really need to cut down on the backstory in the first movies.

 

Best Superhero Movies

1. The Dark Knight- I really can’t find any flaws in this movie, except MAYBE it’s length, but really, it did everything right.

2. Daredevil- Most would disagree, but I think that Daredevil did everything right, maybe not perfectly, but it was a very solid movie.

3. Batman Begins- Since you can’t see too much of the action in Batman Begins, there wasn’t too much else wrong with it.

4. Iron Man- Yeah, lots of these flaws were in it, but that didn’t make it TOO much worse, there were just things that I think could have been added to make it #2 on my list.

Posted in Movies

Top 5 Weirdest (and Greatest) Movies

Posted on by Godfather

No doubt about it, the movies on this list are weird. They either don’t seem to have a point, or just don’t play out the way most movies you see do. For most mainstream audiences, they are stupid and pointless, but to film lovers, they are masterpieces.

5. Dr. Stranglove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb

 

To be fair, pretty much any Stanley Kubrick film could have made this list, but this ones my favorite out of his. About nuclear war, this is the definition of a dark comedy. It features an ex-Nazi in a wheelchair, some crazy generals, and some of the best lines in any movie “We can’t fight here, this is the war room!”. Like I said, these movies aren’t for everyone, but I just can’t imagine someone not liking this movie.

4. American Beauty

 

I don’t even know where to begin on this movie. It reminds me of a hybrid of the comedy “Office Space” and “Fight Club”. After seeing this one last night, I just knew I had to make a list including it. So this one is about an “average” family in the suburbs, who have been tamed by urban life. Each character in it has an entirely different role and weirdness to them. Just watch it to see what I mean.

3. Donnie Darko

 

A psycho student, time travel, a perverted motivational speaker, and a person in a bunny costume named Frank all are part of this cast. If that isn’t weird enough, put in an ending that will confuse you until your brain hurts from trying to put things together. Oh yeah, and I forgot to mention the conversation that some of the high schoolers had about Smurfs.

2. Pulp Fiction

 

I’ve lost track of how many of my lists this movie has been on. But it seems like every topic I decide to do, Pulp Fiction always comes up. The characters aren’t the stragest part of this movie like the other movies, but it’s the way this one is told and the dialogue that just doesn’t fit at all but still fits perfectly with it. The message is what messes up most people when they see this one, they think it’s just a bunch of mindless brutal violence, but just watch and research it later, the whole thing will make sense.

1. Fight Club

 

There is no genre that this film can’t fit into in some way or another. It has comedy, romance, drama, thriller, action, and even sports. The dialogue and characters seem to make no sense, and you have no clue what the point is until the end, where there is a vague idea. It’s my #1 favorite movie of all time, and there is a reason for that. But like Pulp Fiction, a lot of people see it as stupid, mindless violence.

Posted in Sports

Love and Basketball

Posted on by Scarface

The biggest reason I’ve observed about people not liking sports is that they just don’t care for the sport at all, even I don’t like some sports. A lot of them are “boring” or “pointless” to a lot of people. However, Scarface has found the one thing that seems to make people appreciate sports more, movies!

As I’ve figured out from a lot of experience with people (including The Bri), it is much more fun to watch a sport when you “know” the people that are playing it. Sport movies do just this. If you’re watching a movie and you’ve got to know the person being portrayed, it is MUCH easier to become interested in what’s happening in the game. In this way, sport movies take out a lot of the boredom in sports.

Another way it accomplishes this is by climaxing the moments in games. This one may be even more important because it absolutely destroys the boredom that happens in most contests. Normally, only the important and exciting plays are put into a film, making it easy to watch without getting distracted.

Through both of those points, movies can make almost any sport enjoyable, even ping pong or figure skating. Because of sport movies, I’ve become interested in watching various sports because I’ve seen them played in awesome movies. I now watch some tennis, soccer, hockey, more basketball, lots more football and plenty of other sports.

So my main point is this: If you don’t like sports very much for whatever reason, try watching a sport movie. They can be inspiring and make you want to get off the couch and go try it. I’m not saying that it’ll work, some people just weren’t meant to like sports at all, that’s just the way it is. But if you feel that you could enjoy sports in some way, flip on a movie about them, you’ll never believe how much they can accomplish.

And if you’ve seen any sweet sport movies then comment and tell me about them, I’d love to see some more.

This is Scarface signing off.

Posted in Movies

Film Festival + New Movies Reviews

Posted on by Godfather

Last weekend, there was a film festival in our town. If you don’t know what these are, it’s basically a way for movie lovers to go and see some famous actors and directors presenting their films. It’s also a way for independent film makers to get their movies shown on the big screen. So last weekend, I saw 5 movies (one was in regular theaters) and a set of student shorts. Just two days ago, I saw another new movie in theaters. Most of these you can see on DVD, but one or two probably won’t be a wide release if there is any release.

Burn After Reading (theaters)

From the directors of No Country For Old Men, Fargo, The Big Lebowski, and O Brother Where Art Thou comes another great movie. Like most of the Coen brothers’ movies, this one is a dark comedy about a bunch of people who are all confused idiots. The acting was great, with one of the best casts in a while with George Clooney, Frances McCormand, John Malkovich, Tilda Swinton, and Brad Pitt. They each play their parts perfectly as we should expect of them. Some of it wasn’t AS funny as I hoped it would be, but it’s still the best movie in theaters since The Dark Knight. If you have any interest at all in this movie, go see it, if not, just rent it later, you won’t regret it.

43/50 Ducks

Student Academy Award Winning Shorts (not sure if you can see them them)

From 6 different college film directors comes this collection of some weird, and some powerful short films. I’ll break them each down into the categories.

Animation(tie): Art’s Desire: A well done, 4 minute animation of paintings coming to life and drawing better lives for themselves. It brought some laughs, and probably deserved the award. It was a little jumpy in the animation but these aren’t proffesional, so I’ll let it slide a little more. You can see this one on the internet here. 38/50 Ducks

Animation(tie): Mirage: The weaker of the two that tied for first is in 3D. It’s VERY weird, even for me, with a water dwelling person(?) who needs to fill up their tank with water to stay alive. Animation is ok, but nothing spectacular, it wasn’t funny or powerful, I’m sure there were better choices than it. 25/50 Ducks

Narrative: Rundown: This was my 3rd favorite of the bunch, about a news reporter who accidently ran into a pregnent lady in her car, and then reporting about it on T.V. The film is powerful, with great acting and story. I can’t find too much wrong with it except the fact that it didn’t take chances on the cinematography. 45/50 Ducks

 Alternative: Fission: A solid alternative film about, well, not really sure what its about. Something about a guy who is laughing at his shadow that’s trapped in a wall. REALLY weird, but its a good weird, keeping you interested the whole time, even if you have no clue whats going on. 35/50 Ducks

Documentary: Cross Your Eyes Keep Them Wide: About an art studio in San Francisco that lets mentally challenged adults come and make their art, this was easily my second favorite. It’s told without any narration from anybody, just showing their art and having them say how much fun it is. One of the best documentaries I’ve seen, short or long, there could be no way that any other could match it. 48/50 Ducks

Honorary Foreign Film: Nevermore: While it was my dad’s least favorite, I think that it was a masterpiece. Its the longest, about 1 hour, but I just kept wishing that it wouldn’t stop. The shot choices are beautiful, matching the best cinematographers in Hollywood, and the acting was great. It was a little weird for mainstream movie watchers, but for a film lover, it was perfect. 50/50 Ducks

Overall, it was 40/50 Ducks

It’s My Party (DVD)

A solid movie about a gay man who got contracted with AIDs and threw a party before he would kill himself. I like the subject matter it brought up, dieing before becoming a vegetable, but it just didn’t make me connect with the characters all too well. I cared for him, but it didn’t bring the emotions of sadness I think it meant to. After the movie was done, and the director talked about it, you could see that he was very proud of it though, since it was based on a true story from his life. If you want to see it, then you shouldn’t dislike it, but if you’re a homophobe, don’t see it.

35/50 Ducks

La Bamba (DVD)

About the musician Ritchie Valens, this was tied for my favorite full length movie at the film festival. While in technical terms, it was all just above average, it really does make you feel for him, even more so than Walk the Line, the Johnny Cash film. Acting was very good, but what made it so good was the music and the emotions. Lou Diamond Phillips, the main actor in it, talked about how it started his succesful career, putting him on the radar. I think that of all the movies that I saw, this one was the most mainstream and could be liked by anyone, unless you just hate good music.

45/50 Ducks

Around the World in Two Round Trips (not availible, U.S premier)

The other movie that was tied for my favorite, this one was an excellent documentary of a Brazilian family that sailed around the world along Magellean’s path. It keeps you interested with funny stories from the trip and history lessons about Magellean. From beginning to end, it keeps you hooked to your seat, not wanting to take that trip to the bathroom. The subtitles though were the only problem, since sometimes you couldn’t read them because of the color of font. Otherwise, it was my favorite full length documentary of all time.

45/50 Ducks

P.T. 109 (not on DVD, maybe on VHS)

Starring Cliff Robertson (Uncle Ben in Spiderman) as John F. Kennedy, this was about Kennedy’s experience in the war. Everything in here was average, the acting, mood, writing, and directing. While it was a great story, I just think that it could have been told better with less of an upbeat tone. War movies should be grisly and violent, (Saving Private Ryan, Apocalypse Now) not happy. The bad part is though, we didn’t see the most important scene in the movie, since the disc or film was messed up. I liked it, but it could have been better.

35/50 Ducks

Righteous Kill (theaters)

Starring Al Pacino and Robert De Niro, there was no way that this movie could be horrible. But other than their acting, the rest of it was, like P.T. 109, average. The script had some good scenes with funny dialogue, and good action, but it’s horrible compared to a lot of the movies that are also in the “crime drama” genre. I hoped that it would end well, with a big twist at the end, but the “twist” was so easy to spot 20 minutes before that I wasn’t surprised at all. If you like crime dramas, then you shouldn’t be dissappointed, just don’t look for anything great here.

35/50 Ducks

Posted in Movies

Busy Weekend…

Posted on by Godfather

I can’t say much this weekend since I’ve got homework, and a lot of movies to see at the Festival. So really, just expect some short reviews next week of what I saw this week. These will include “Burn After Reading”, “La Bamba”, “Righteous Kill”, and some more. Sorry for not making a longer one, but I really don’t have time.

Posted in Movies

Top 5 Movies That Are Better Than Citizen Kane

Posted on by Godfather

Last week, I talked about why Citizen Kane is not the best movie ever made. So this week I’ve decided to make a list of 5 movies that are better than it. I’ve taken into consideration most of the aspects of filmmaking, cinematography, directing, originality, writing, and story when making this list.

 

5. Memento

 

This was the hardest decision for me when making the list. I had 2 other movies that could have taken this spot, but I pretty much had to choose Memento because of how greatly it was told. The movie starts from the end and makes it’s way towards the beginning.  You would think that you could guess what is going on from the start, but so much changes by the end (of the movie) that you are left stunned. The shots were excellent, and keeping the black and white scenes between every segment was brilliant. For those of you who didn’t know, Memento was written and directed by Christopher Nolan, the creator of The Dark Knight, which was amazing, but this one was even better. For it’s originality and storytelling, I think that this was much better than Citizen Kane.

 

4. Metropolis

 

Made in 1927, I think that this silent movie is still better than Kane. The story is basically about how the rich business owners and poor workers need to work together. Even with no sound but the music, Metropolis is still much more interesting than Citizen Kane. The sets don’t look too realistic, but they did what they could with the materials. The movie isn’t even fully put together yet because somebody lost a few of the film reels with the scenes, yet it still works fine with a few slides telling what happened in them. The ending does wrap up the story well, clearly showing what the whole film was about. I think that Metropolis should be on a lot more Top 100 Movies Lists, maybe it will when they come out with the full version.

 

3. Raging Bull

 

From start to finish, Raging Bull is a masterpiece of film. It’s been known to be a “great film about a bad person”. While it is #4 on AFI’s list, I could see it being 1. It shows this man’s life greatly through black and white and how he came to realize how much he needed to change. It’s directed by Martin Scorsese, one of the greatest of all time, and what many believe to be his best movie. Even behind the scenes, Raging Bull is great because Scorsese was heavy into drugs before making this, but with the help of his friend and lead actor Rober De Niro, this movie was his rehab. At the end, it shows a quote that is wonderful, because it shows what the movie was about, behind the scenes and in the movie.

 

2. The Godfather

 

How could you make a list like this without The Godfather? This film is great in every way, wonderful music, acting, and story makes it perfect for the #1 movie of all time. It shows the mafia in a very realistic manner, and how the people around them suffer for the line of business. Symbolism is everywhere in here, doors, windows and even chairs represent something else. I really don’t think there is much explaining to do for The Godfather, everything is executed better than Citizen Kane, I even thought it went by faster for being 3 hours compared to 2. It definitely has stood the test of time, and is already #2 on AFI’s list, so one spot shouldn’t change too much.

 

1. Schindler’s List

 

How this movie is still only #8 I don’t know. I actually didn’t enjoy watching the movie, because of how long and slow it is. But thats the point, since Schindler’s List is about the Holocaust, it needs to make you feel like it’s never going to end. It gets very emotional at the end, bringing me to the point of shedding tears. I just can’t see anyone not respecting this out of how well it was made, and the subject matter. I think that in 10 or 100 years Schindler’s List will still be seen as a wonderful film. Spielberg is said to be one of the best for a reason, and it’s these kinds of movies that earns him that title.

 

Posted in Movies

Why Citizen Kane is Not the Best Movie Ever Made

Posted on by Godfather

On pretty much any organized list of the greatest movies of all time, Citizen Kane is up there as number one. For those of you who haven’t heard of it, its a 1940s movie about a man the comes up through poverty to be rich but when he dies, his last word is “Rosebud”. A news reporter then tries to piece together his life to find out why he said that. I’m not saying that it’s a bad movie, just that there have been much better movies out there.

So why do I think this? First, the pacing was pretty bad. The 2 hours seemed to add another 1/2 hour because of the way it was told. If a movie is to be considered the greatest, it should at least have a reason to drag out. It also didn’t have AS deep of a meaning as some other movies. Sure, the whole point is good, but it didn’t make you think about the movie to get it, they pretty much explained everything in the dialogue. “Show, don’t tell” is the motto for filmmakers, and Kane didn’t follow it. Finally, none of the movie is the best I’ve ever seen. There’s been better writing in Pulp Fiction, better cinematography (the way a shot looks) in Assassination of Jesse James, better acting in There Will Be Blood, better story in Schindler’s List, and a better meaning in No Country For Old Men.

Still, as a 60 year old movie, Citizen Kane is a good one. But with so many better films today, it doesn’t stand out. Next week I’ll post a blog on my top 5 movies that should be in front of Citizen Kane on any “Best Movies Ever” list.

Posted in Movies

Are Films an Art?

Posted on by Godfather

 

The definition of art is that it’s “the products of human creativity”, so would you consider (some) movies to be as much of an art as the Mona Lisa? They have as much, or more thought put into them than regular paintings/drawings and require a large group of people to come together to make a masterpiece. Like I said earlier though, I wouldn’t consider ALL movies to be an art since most are just made to entertain, but every year at the Oscars, the academy honors the films that went above and beyond what an entertaining movie does. So what makes the film an art? Well, to me, it’s the combination of not being cliche, having deeper meanings, and bringing every element together perfectly (directing, acting, editing, cinematography, etc.). Some though, don’t have all three. For example, Pulp Fiction doesn’t have a deep meaning, but the rest is done so perfectly that it doesn’t need one. So what do you think? Should all films be considered art, only a few, or none at all?