Bonus: It's like an Oreo...

  For my fifth and last review I decided on the movie Be Kind Rewind. In the title I compared this movie to an Oreo cookie (at least my view of them anyway). The first and last part of it are gross and the middle is really good. I think this is just like the film BKR because the first and last parts are not very good and the middle is actually unique and funny. I did not like the beginning because it was kind of stupid with the whole Fats Wallard thing and Jack Black getting lifted in the air by electricity and the only ill effect is that he gets magnetised. I also did not like the end because it is kind of stupid as well. The final film they made was boring and kind of dumb but everyone showed up to see it anyway and then we find another thousand people watching and howling with laughter even though it is not actually funny. The middle however, was very good especially all of the creative effects they used on the movies. Another thing that I liked about this movie is that Jack Black is less annoying then usual. So, this movie is kind of like the Good, the Bad and the Ugly but with the Middle, Beginning and the end.

BONUS: Picking up Momentum

For my first Bonus review I picked Memento. I probably sound like a broken record at this point but I really liked it. I like how the story is told through his pictures and tatto's and how the director get's us to see the story in a similar way that the main character does, not knowing what came before. The story itself seems pretty textbook at the start (man avenging family member) but at the end of the movie it does a complete 180. This movie mixes funny and serious elements to create an exhilarating experience from beginning to end.  Apart from all the great elements of this film I think that there is still one. It does bot have the rewatchability factor. You already know all the big twists from the end of the movie so all of the shock is gone. Apart from that I still think it is a wonderful and truly unique film.


                          Look at these Ballers

Colin's Views on the Spotless Mind

For my 3rd review I decided to do Eternal sunshine of the Spotless mind. Going into this movie I was sceptical. I do not think I have ever really liked a romance movie but this one was different. I was happy to see that it was not solely a romance movie  but it also had other comedic and sci-fi elements that made it appeal to me more. There were many aspects of this film that I really enjoyed, one of them being the way it was told. I really liked how it was told backwards so you don't know what came before it. I also liked how Jim Carrey played the lead because you rarely get to see him in serious roles and see how he is a little more versatile than other comedy actors. The story would have been very cliché (boy meets girl, fall in love, break up, make up) if they had not added the twist of them having their minds erased. I also think that this movie is a great take on Fate vs. Free Will. You see that even after the people's minds are erased that they end up together again and again both with Jim Carrey's character and Kirsten Dunst's. It's still the same old story but they made it a lot more interesting. So I believe that this film takes a tired old story and turns it on it's head to make a romance movie that can appeal to a wider audience.

Harrison Ford: Running with Scissors

            For my second review I decided to do the Blade Runner. I thought that this movie was astounding. The visuals, costumes, effects and the story were all amazing. I would now have to place this as one of my favourite Sci-Fi films of all time behind the Star Wars original trilogy. While was watching the film in class I was literally confounded as to why people were saying it was boring. I thought it was a little slow in parts but the pacing was considerably better compared to another famous Sci-Fi movie that was just a series of slow paced shots of space ships flying around and then a 10 minute acid trip.


                                                    What is this? I don't even...


There was also the ending which was truly fantastic. I love how it lets the viewer interpret whether or not Deckard is a replicant or not. This movie had me hooked from beginning to end and I believe that it will be considered one of the greatest Sci-Fi films of all time.

R.I.P: An Internet Manifesto

For my first review I decided to do Rip: A Remix Manifesto. I decided to do this movie because I thought it was a very good documentary about the problems with copyright law. The reasons why I thought it was a good documentary was because it was very persuasive. It did not just highlight the problems that an artist like Girl Talk might have with copyright, it highlighted what these laws mean for everyone. It shows how companies like Disney and Viacom sue poor, working class families for millions just for downloading a couple song and how they manage to convince senators to vote for their causes in congress.  I think that this movie could not have been shown at a more critical time due to all of the new copyright laws being voted on currently such as SOPA and ACTA which could end the internet as we know it. So, all in all I think that this was a very great and informative documentary that is extremely relevant to today's society.

Genre Assignment- Gangster Films

Introduction

So for this project I decided to do Gangster films. My reasons for doing this is because they are amongst my favourite films and it also fairly easy to pick out important actors and directors in this genre. Now for my project.

A Brief History of the Genre

              The genre of Gangster/Mob films in a sub-genre of crime films. "Crime Films" include prison films/ legal dramas/ detective films and even some of the "classic" film noire movies. However, Gangster films can be traced back to the early 20th century. One of the first to mark the start of the gangster/crime genre was D. W. Griffith's The Musketeers of Pig Alley (1912) which was about organized crime. There were several small one-reel gangster films produced years before but none have survived. Raoul Walshes "The Regeneration(1915)" and Josef von Sternberg's gangland melodrama Underworld (1927) were among the more famous films produced before the "talkies" came along. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kG5hbpL8Njo

A copy of the first organized crime movie ever made

           


      It is said that gangster films did not become truly entertaining until the introduction of the "Talkie". Events such as Prohibition and the Saint Valentines Massacre of 1929, and the existence of real life gangsters (such as Al Capone) helped to give this genre mass appeal.

The talkies era accounted for the rise of crime films, because these films couldn't come to life without sound (machine gun fire, screeching brakes, screams, chases through city streets and squealing car tires).Three great classic gangster films (among the first of the talkies) marked the genre's popular acceptance and started the wave of gangster films in the 1930s in the sound era. The lead role in each film (a gangster/criminal or bootleg racketeer of the Prohibition Era) was glorified, but each one ultimately met his doom in the final scenes of these films, due to censors' demands that they receive moral retribution for their crimes. These films were "Little Caesar(1930)" which was about the rise and fall of a Chicago Killer named Caesar Enrico.

The second was called " The Public Enemy (1931)" about a bootlegger named Tom Powers. And the last way "Scarface: the Shame of a Nation" Which was pretty much based off the life of Al Capone. These films helped to provide a solid foundation for the next generation of Gangster films to come.

           As the decade of the 40s and the post-war period emerged, crime films became darker, more brutal, and violent, many crime/gangster films were actually film noirs. "This Gun for Hire", "White Heat" and "Gun Crazy" all melded elements from the Film Noir genre and the gangster genre. In the 50's the focus moved over to organized crim syndicates such as the Italian Mafia that portrayed society as corrupt or immoral. One example of this is "On the Waterfront" where Marlon Brando is caught up with corrupt union bosses and racketeering in a gritty grim look at New Yorks Waterfront.

             Fast Forward 20 years to the 1970's where two of the most successful and most acclaimed were created " The Godfather parts I and II". Both were epic sagas of a violent, treacherous, and tightly-knit crime family superstructure from Sicily that had settled in New York and had become as powerful as government and big business. Both contained brutal death scenes scenes and Part II is known to be the fist sequel ever to win the Academy Award for Best Picture.

            After " The Godfather Trilogy" was introduced many other classic gangster films followed. Such as " GoodFellas"  which followed the rise and fall of Henry Hill and Casino which had a similar structure. Quentin Tarantino's "Reservoir Dogs" and " Pulp Fiction" are both modern gangster films with a twist. Both told out of order with unique characters who can turn a mundane scene into a captivating one with nothing but quirky or interesting dialogue such as the famous "Like a Virgin" scene at the beginning of  "Reservoir Dogs" or when Vincent and Jules are talking about hamburgers in "Pulp Fiction". 

It seems as though less and less traditional gangster films are being produced and now more "urban" gangster films are being made. These are more or less along the same lines but with the more modern Black and Latino gangs that are being formed today.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2hvNi0VZwc8

As of late not many gangster films have been produced just because most notable gangsters have already had movies done about them. One movie that came out a few years ago was Public Enemy. However, it seemed kind of bland and also Johnny Depp is way too good looking to be John Dillenger

Come on look at that!

So that was a somewhat brief history of Gangster films throughout the Twentieth century

Important Actors, Directors or writers

In the early days of the gangster films important figures were:  Edward G. Robinson, James Cagney, Humphrey Bogart, and Fritz Lang

Later on, some of the important figures were: Marlon Brando, Al Pacino,  Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Scorsese, Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci, Nicholas Pileggi and Quentin Tarentino.

Stylistic Elements

       Gangster films are usually gritty and dark both in subject matter and in style. Most of the illegal activity of the Gangsters takes place at night so it gives it all an ominous, seedy feeling. As well as the night sky, everything about them is dark: their clothes, cars, their guns and even their morals are almost always a beautiful shade of black. The camera angles are usually pretty standard. If an ominous character is walking forward than they might use a low shot or a high shot if someone is in a vulnerable position like he is about to be killed. One shot that is used famously in some movies is "The Trunk Shot". This shot is an almost completely vertical point of view shot that is used to make you feel as though you are trapped in a trunk looking up.

      This shot is best used to show extreme vulnerability. It is like a low angle shot to the max. It is also used very effectively in Gangster films due to their penchant for shoving people/corpses into trunks. This was notably used in both Goodfellas, as shown in the video below. Acting in these movies is usually serious due to the subject matter. It would be unbelievable if someone used a Adam Sandler-esque acting style in one of these movies because these are serious people. Another notable acting style is the insane erratic style used notably by Joe Pesci in both Casino and Goodfellas.

Thematic Elements

       The world portrayed in this genre is a rich and detailed one. The people who inhabit it are divided into three categories. The gangsters and their affiliates (their families, lawyers and so forth) who are mostly portrayed as the anti-heroes. Although they are usually terrible people who perform unspeakable crimes, they usually have a good explanation. There are also the law makers like judges and cops. These people are usually portrayed as either corrupt and payed off. However, the ones who actually do their jobs are usually portrayed as evil and cruel. And lastly you have the regular Joe's who choose to live a life of boredom and mediocrity.



The movies are usually set in a gritty urban environment. One you would expect to have rampant crime such as L.A or New York. It is full of a mixture of rival gangs, cops and other figures who are out to get you. The figures in this world are usually criminals, more often then not Italian. In terms of recurring thematic elements there are many. One element that we see constantly is the use of "Black and Grey" morality as mentioned above where they are able to justify horrible acts like murder or theft. Another theme that you see a lot, mostly with the early ones, is that time does not pay. Due to censorship in the early days the directors had to make sure the gangsters were caught or faced the consequences somehow. And in just about every gangster movie, and this is why they got famous, there are scenes of extreme violence. In the early days it was people getting shot at and then when they were hit a puff of smoke would erupt from their jackets. Then later on things got more extreme like in the Godfather when Sonny gets murdered at the tollbooth and so on. And in terms of motivation for the crimes you have to look at the era. If it's set in the 20's or 30's then you can expect it to be revolving around Alcohol and if it's later on than it's probably about drugs.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJ2RofOEAEU
although long this video exemplifies many of the aspects found in this genre. Violence, moral ambiguity and Italians.
       
Therefore the genre of Gangster/Crime films are a very rich and wonderful part of cinema history and will live on for years to come.

Numero Dos hermano.

I believe that if a movie has an ambiguous or confusing ending that it could hinder the success of the movie but not always. The reason being is that a lot of people are not clever enough to figure out the endings of these movies. They get frusterated and confused and say they don't like it and might even give it a bad review (to their friends or on the internet) which could deter others from seeing it. However, I personally prefer it when movies leave unanswered questions because it gives me something to discuss or think about. Which gives the movie more depth and feeling than the movies that lay it all out for you. One movie that demonstrates this point is Donnie Darko. The reason why this movie is so good is because it's confusing. It takes multiple views and a lot of thinking to figure out the ending and that is why the movie is so amazing. You are allowed to create your own interpretations on the ending. But that might be why it did not do as well in the box office as other movies that explain everything for you.




Another movie that has a mysterious ending is Inception. The movie closes with a lingering shot of a top spinning which would determine whether Cob is still in a dream or not. This is an ending that has a lot of people arguing and thus holds a lot of intrigue. But this was sort of the opposite of Donnie Darko. The movie itself was not that confusing or ambiguous and it did exponentially better in the box office at 825 million against Donnie Darko's 4.1 million. So there is some truth to the correlation between how confusing the ending it is and how much money it makes.


And in terms of personal preference I do enjoy it when movies leave the ending ambiguous or open to interpretation or even just unexplained components of the movie that can drive me crazy thinking about like the briefcase in Pulp Fiction.  If they told me what was in it then it would ruin the mystique of it.