Tuesday, February 24, 2004
Whew it's been a while. I've been pretty busy. I want to take this opportunity though to write up a few mini-reviews of movies that we have watched so far this year in my Intro to Film class.
The first week we watched Moonstruck, a romantic comedy from 1987 starring Cher and Nicholas Cage. For what it's worth, the movie was pretty funny. I enjoyed the ensemble cast, especially the grandfather, and Nicholas Cage was his usual goofy self. What detracted from the movie was the simple fact that Cher is in it, and it made it hard to enjoy, but I feel that if the movie had starred anyone else it would have been one that I would recommend.
The next movie we watched was The Big Combo, a film noir from 1955 starring Cornel Wilde and Richard Conte (The Godfather). The film, shot in black and white and pretty obviously from the 50s, still was pretty good. I enjoyed some of the plot elements that it had which were typical of a film noir, and it was very well made. The story kept you in suspense and there were enough plot twists to hold the viewer's attention. Not a bad film at all.
The next week, we watched Bram Stoker's Dracula, a horrible excuse for a movie. This movie had no coherence or direction and was just plain visually appalling and disgusting. Keanu Reeves is not a good actor that cannot even try to pull off a British accent with any success, and the only saving grace of the film is that Anthony Hopkins was in it with a mildly amusing character. I would never want to watch this movie again and I suggest that you don't either.
After that, we followed up a horrible movie with an only very slightly better one, Cabaret. This is a musical from 1972 starring Liza Minelli and Michael York. This film had promise, and I thought had a good storyline developing, but it all went down the drain when they inserted a random musical number with the odd emcee (Joel Grey) or let a subplot disappear for an hour at a time. Also not a film that I would recommend.
The film teacher got back into my good graces with the last film we saw, The Circus, a silent film starring Charlie Chaplin from 1928. Charlie Chaplin is pure genius, and his achievements never cease to astound me. Besides acting in the picture, Chaplin also directed, produced, wrote the screenplay, and scored the music. This movie is very funny, showing the relative unimportance of dialogue and the genius of sight gags and a type of comedy that has unfortunately become a lost art. If you have never seen a Charlie Chaplin film, you need to just for the exposure to that type of cinema.
Next week: On the Waterfront, starring my man Marlon Brando.
The first week we watched Moonstruck, a romantic comedy from 1987 starring Cher and Nicholas Cage. For what it's worth, the movie was pretty funny. I enjoyed the ensemble cast, especially the grandfather, and Nicholas Cage was his usual goofy self. What detracted from the movie was the simple fact that Cher is in it, and it made it hard to enjoy, but I feel that if the movie had starred anyone else it would have been one that I would recommend.
The next movie we watched was The Big Combo, a film noir from 1955 starring Cornel Wilde and Richard Conte (The Godfather). The film, shot in black and white and pretty obviously from the 50s, still was pretty good. I enjoyed some of the plot elements that it had which were typical of a film noir, and it was very well made. The story kept you in suspense and there were enough plot twists to hold the viewer's attention. Not a bad film at all.
The next week, we watched Bram Stoker's Dracula, a horrible excuse for a movie. This movie had no coherence or direction and was just plain visually appalling and disgusting. Keanu Reeves is not a good actor that cannot even try to pull off a British accent with any success, and the only saving grace of the film is that Anthony Hopkins was in it with a mildly amusing character. I would never want to watch this movie again and I suggest that you don't either.
After that, we followed up a horrible movie with an only very slightly better one, Cabaret. This is a musical from 1972 starring Liza Minelli and Michael York. This film had promise, and I thought had a good storyline developing, but it all went down the drain when they inserted a random musical number with the odd emcee (Joel Grey) or let a subplot disappear for an hour at a time. Also not a film that I would recommend.
The film teacher got back into my good graces with the last film we saw, The Circus, a silent film starring Charlie Chaplin from 1928. Charlie Chaplin is pure genius, and his achievements never cease to astound me. Besides acting in the picture, Chaplin also directed, produced, wrote the screenplay, and scored the music. This movie is very funny, showing the relative unimportance of dialogue and the genius of sight gags and a type of comedy that has unfortunately become a lost art. If you have never seen a Charlie Chaplin film, you need to just for the exposure to that type of cinema.
Next week: On the Waterfront, starring my man Marlon Brando.
