Movie Review: North by Nothwest

Movie Review: North by Northwest

     North by Northwest is a movie directed by Alfred Hitchcock. The theatrical version of the film was released July 28^th, 1959 by MGM studios and Warner Home Video released the DVD version of the film in the year 2001. Cary Grant stars as the protagonist, Roger Thornhill and Eva Marie Saint stares as Eve Kendall.

     The protagonist, Roger Thornhill is mistaken for a man named, George Kaplan. He is kidnapped and taken to the house of what he assumes is Lester Townsend’s. When Thornhill enters the house, it’s where the initial incident in the plot begins. He is interrogated by a man named Phillip Vandamm and later is arrested for drunk driving after being forced to drink Bourbon. When we are first introduced to Roger Thornhill he is an innocent man, but as the story builds he portrayed as a criminal because of the bizarre events leading up to the conclusion of the story. One of these events is when he meets Lester Townsend in person; suddenly Townsend is hit in the back with a knife leaving him dead. Thornhill pulls the knife out of his back and is photographed for the paper as a criminal. Later in the story, he meets Eve Kendall on a train to Chicago. She is a very unpredictable character.

     Both Cary Grant and Eva Marie Saint played their roles well. They were very believable. The costumes in the movie blended well with the time period and the characters. I thoroughly enjoyed this movie and would definitely see it again. It was a very suspenseful movie and had good plot structure. 

Literary Views on the film "Stand by Me"

Literary Views on the film “Stand by Me”

     The movie “Stand by Me” is directed by Rob Reiner. It was released worldwide by, Columbia Pictures, August 22^nd, 1986. This movie stars, Wil Wheaton as Gordie Lachance, River Pheonix as Chris Chambers, Corey Feldman as Teddy Duchamp, and Jerry O’Connell as Vern Tessio.

     Throughout the film, many various camera angles were used. This created a very realistic effect for the viewer, making them feel like they’re in the film with the characters. In the scene where they boys are walking across the bridge with the train tracks and they hear the train coming, the notion of filming between both the boys and the train creates suspense because you know that the train is right behind them and you’re also wondering if the train is going to hit them or if they’re going to make it across alive.

     Symbolism plays an important role in this film. The train tracks symbolize the boys’ journey to finding the dead body. At the beginning, it also represents their path to becoming heroes. In the scene where the deer approaches Gordie, the deer symbolizes innocence and purity. This could also represent a similarity with Gordie’s unique personality.

    Similar to the film, “The Goonies”, each character in this film portrays their own unique personality. In this film, each characters personality reflects their home and personal life. One example from the film is; Gordie is the main protagonist of the film and is portrayed as a shy and self-conscious character. His older brother meant the world to him. He felt like his brother was more of a father figure to him then his own because he felt his father didn’t’ care for him which lead him thinking he caused the death of his brother. As the movie progresses, the boys mature with it. 

Dramatic Views on the film "The Goonies"

Dramatic Aspects of the Film, “The Goonies”

     “The Goonies” is a film directed by Richard Donner. The movie was released June 7^th, 1985 by Warner Bros. Pictures and stars Sean Astin as “Mikey”, Corey Feldman as “Mouth”, Ke Huy Quan as “Data”, Jeff Cohen as “Chunk”, Josh Brolin as “Brand”, Kerri Green as “Andy” and Martha Plimpton as “Stef”. The general summary of the plot starts with a group of friends who call themselves, “The Goonies”. They are each facing the foreclosure of their homes. On their very last day together as a group, the kids are up in Mikey’s attic exploring the many items his father has collected over the years. While on their expedition, they find an old newspaper clipping, a Spanish map and an artifact, which relates to the story of One-Eyed Willie. The group heads down to the coast and enter an abandoned restaurant where they encounter the Fratellis who are wanted criminals. While hiding from the Fratellis, the group finds an entrance to a cave where they then follow the map to try and find the lost treasure.

     For the design and set teams of the film, it must have taken them a long time to design and build a cavern like the one featured in this film. The set traps added detail and made the set look more intriguing to the viewer because they added suspense to many scenes throughout the film. This makes the film more interesting for the viewer to watch. The pirate ship and the treasure (which is mainly all gold) seemed to catch the viewer’s attention because everything looked very realistic. The gold was especially eye catching because it was so sparkly and shiny. The pirate ship had every detail that you would imagine a pirate ship would intentionally have. These details include a plank, a mast, a flag, trapped doors and etc.

 

     The make up in this film was done very well for a movie of the 1980’s. John Matuszak who plays “Sloth” in the film had a very disfigured face, which was all thanks to various molds and make up especially. This gave him a very realistic look towards his character.

     Each child actor in the film portrayed a character with their on unique personality. For example, Mikey is an enthusiastic type of character who is very excited to find One-Eyed Willie and the treasure, Data is known as the “go to gadget guy”, Chunk is a loud character that loves food, Stef can be a “smart mouth”, Andy and Brandon are portrayed as very stereotypical characters and Mouth loves to joke around. 

Cinematic Views on the film "Super 8"

Cinematic Views on the Film “Super 8”

     Super 8 is a film directed by J.J Abrams and produced by Steven Spielberg. It was released June 10^th, 11 and stars, Joel Courtney as Joe Lamb, Elle Fanning as Alice Dainard, Riley Griffiths as Charles Kaznyk, Ryan Lee as Cary and Gabriel Basso as Martin. The overall plot of the movie is about these kids making their own major production film in a small town. Late one night, Alice drives the crew to a train station where they set up to film a scene on the boarding platform while an actual train is passing by. While they are filming this scene, a nearby truck comes into contact with the train. This causes the train to derail causing a major explosion. The kids make it out of the wreckage alive and leave immediately before the army made it in time to catch them at the scene of the crime. Following this event, strange things start to happen in the town and people are slowly starting to disappear.

*Watch the film to find out what happens next!

     In the film, “Super 8” the train crash scene includes no lack in detail. The editors of the film were given a task of creating a very surreal looking train crash, which included numerous explosions while the train was derailing as well as pieces and parts were flying everywhere, especially towards certain characters. The tension created first starts when the characters are told to yell over the sounds of the train passing by, towards each other. When the train passes by and the characters are filming, each characters hair is flailing around insanely. This represents how close the characters are to the train and how much force is going against them. This causes the scene to be loud and dramatic. There had to have been additional lighting to this scene to present the emotions of each characters face in response to the situation. This scene had to have taken a large portion of time for the editing department to finish. The sound in this scene is diegetic because the characters can hear what is going on around them in the environment. 

  

     Another aspect shown twice throughout the film are lens flares. Lens flares are created from light sources found in a scene. They give off the effect that the audience or the viewer is in the scene with the characters. It makes the setting more realistic for the viewer. The first lens flares are seen when the kids first arrive at the train station and the camera zooms towards them creating numerous flares from light sources found in the shot. The second lens flare is seen when Joe and Alice are viewing Joe’s video of his mother. The lens flare is found coming from the projector behind them.

     

True Grit

     True Grit is an American Western film and is directed by the Coen brothers. This movie stars, Hailee Steinfeld, Jeff Bridges, Matt Damon and Josh Brolin. Paramount pictures released the film, December 22nd, 2010.

     Mattie Ross (Hailee Steinfeld) is a fourteen year old girl. Her father has just been murderd by one of his hired hands. His name is Tom Chaney (Josh Brolin). She sets out on a "mission", which is to find Chaney and kill him for killing her father. To help her, she hires U.S. Marshal Cogburn (Jeff Bridges). Texas Ranger LaBoeuf (Matt Damon) decides to team up with Cogburn because he knows Chaneys hideout. Along their journey, Mattie comes across Chaney while fetching water by a nearby stream. Mattie shoots him, but he survives and brings her back to their hideout. Later on, Mattie manages to get her hands on a LaBoeuf's rifle and shoots Chaney. Does he survive or is he dead? You'll just have to watch the movie to find out! :)

     The actors and actresses are very believable in the movie. They all played their roles very well. Hailee Steinfeld played her role as Mattie Ross really well. Hailee had to play a very strong female role in the movie and she did really well, she was a character that really catches your attention. I think she should win an award for best acting in the movie. The costumes were very well done and matched each characters personality.

     I would recommend this film to people who really enjoy the Western genre. I personally do not like Westerns, but I really enjoyed this movie because it had a suspenseful plot and I was always wondering what was going to happen next and if she was going to achieve her goal of killing Chaney.

Singing in the Rain

     Singing in the Rain is a 1952 film starring Gene Kelly, Donald O'Connor and Debbie Reynolds. It was directed by Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen. The movie was released March 27th, 1952 and was based on the idea of the transition from silent films to talking ones ("talkies"). The basic plot of the film is about an actor named, Don Lockwood (Gene Kelly) who is famous for silent films. One night, while being paraded over by fans, Lockwood jumps into a passing car where he meets a women named, Kathy Seldon. Later on in the movie, they both begin to fall in love with each other. Lockwood's next big movie, "The Singing Cavalier" is estimated to be a big hit with the public, but after a massive release from a rival studio of the first ever talkie called, "The Jazz Singers" the head of Monumental Pictures (Lockwood's studio) is forced to turn "The Singing Cavalier" into a talkie! The picture faces multiple difficulties over a period of time. The biggest problem was Lina Lamont's (Jean Hagen) high-pitched voice. Lockwood is forced to work with Lamont even though he despises working with her. The test screening for the film was a complete disaster with the synchronization of the voices and the actions on screen going haywire. Lockwood and Monumental Pictures are almost out of hope when Don't best friend, Cosmo Brown has an idea to turn the film into a musical called, "The Dancing Cavalier". Kathy agrees on becoming Lina's voice for the film to save Lockwood's career. Lina then becomes furious about Kathy and Don's relationship and almost puts the studio in jeopardy from her demands. At the end, the movie becomes a great success.

     I found that the characters played their roles well. The costumes were a nice touch and matched each characters personality perfectly. For example, Lina Lamont was always dressed in fancy, "high-end" clothing which told us a lot about her "status" in the movie. She was a rich and famous actress. Don Lockwood, for the most part was dressed in nice suites. He was a rich and famous actor. Kathy Seldon seemed like a "middle-class" woman so she dressed in your average everyday clothes. The costumes always make characters look more believable in a film. For the costumes in this film, they did fit in with the year that this movie took place in. The movie took place in the year, 1927 and one thing I did notice was that the girls in this film wore flapper dresses. 

     I usually don't like watching musicals, but I really enjoyed this film. I enjoyed the storyline, overall. The characters played their roles really well and they were more than believable. If I were to recommend this film, I would recommend it to anyone because I think the storyline is appropriate for almost all ages and it's a great family movie. If you're looking for a great film for family movie night, I would definitely recommend this one! This movie is now, definitely on my list of favourites. I would rate it a 9/10. 

My Fav. Movie (August Rush)

Friday September 14^th, 12

     My favorite movie is, “August Rush” directed by Kirsten Sheridan, starring Freddie Highmore, Keri Russell and Jonathan Rhys Meyers. I like this movie because it has such a great story line and the main focus throughout the movie is how music can affect and change people’s lives. The basic plot of the movie is about a family who has been torn apart and later reunited by “following the music”. The actors in the movie played their roles well. They were very believable. Keri Russell plays Lyla Novacek, a cellist who plays for the New York Philharmonic Orchestra. She didn’t actually know how to play the cello on set, so she faked it and it was very believable. I would recommend this movie to anyone of all ages. It is such an amazing story. I would rate it a 4.5/5 

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari

Movie review on the film: The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari

     The movie, “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari” is a 1920’s German silent horror film. It was directed by Robert Wiene. The movie was initially released February 26^th, 1920. The basic plot of the story starts off with two men talking with each other (one older and one younger (Francis)) and they are distracted by a woman named, Jane walking nearby. After seeing Jane, the younger of the two men starts off a second conversation with the older man, which he claimed to be a “recollected” story. There is a carnival in town and Francis and his friend Allan are off to go see the somnambulist, Cesare and Dr. Caligari. After seeing the somnambulist, Allan has been told he has till dawn the next to live. At dawn the next day, Allan is found dead, just like the somnambulist predicted. During the rising action, there are multiple murders in the town which then leads to an investigation to Dr. Caligari and the somnambulist. The story ends with a thrilling conclusion.

     Personally, for a silent movie in the 1920’s, I thought that it had a very well planned and “thought out” story line. It had many twists and turns throughout the plot, especially in the end. If you don’t think about what’s going on throughout the story, it will seem very confusing when it’s over. I think this movie really makes people think about what just happened because it is told as something that “supposedly” happened in the past (flashback). The sets, characters and costumes were all very believable and realistic and went along very well with the storyline. Since this was a horror film, the sets were made to look crooked. This effect gives the audience an “eerie” feeling when watching the film.

     Like I explained in the above paragraph, for a 1920’s horror film it was a very good movie and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I would recommend this film to anyone who would like a different perspective on film because it’s pretty different compared to modern day movies. It also has a pretty decent story line which I would think would be appropriate for all ages.