spotify button test

The American, directed by Anton Corbijn and the almost imediant resurrection of my movie blog

Hey guys,
In case you missed my last post, I was planning on killing my movie blog. I am pleased to inform you that this is no longer happening. : D Although I will continue to review movies, I will no loner do so weekly, rather I will make a certain number of posts a month (around 4). I also have seperated my movie blog posts from my Computer Programming posts by creating a new blog soely for my movie reviews. If you are interested in visiting my movie blog, see the link at the top of this page. From now on this will be the last movie review on this blog, all of the future reviews will be on my new blog. I was going to stop reviewing movies due to my lack of time/effort but I almost immediately regretted my actions, for I already miss reviewing movies. So, without further ado... this week's movie is;

The American, directed by Anton Cornijn

After I saw The American a couple of weeks ago, I wasn't quite sure what to think. I remember watching it and being fairly impressed with the cinematography and implements of mise en scene, but after the film I realized that pretty much nothing had happened during the entire movie. I later read a review on IMDb that described this movie perfectly as, "a masterfully crafted film about nothing." This is basically exactly how I feel about this movie. 

The American is a story about an american assassin who goes by Senior Farfalla (Mr. Butterfly) who is visiting Italy to complete his final job before retirement. The entire movie basically follows him around as he does various day to day activities, with no real plot development. He soon realizes that he is being followed, after which several attempts at his life were made. You discover that his boss is trying to kill him, and then he does. That basically sums the movie up. The only other detail I can think of is that he falls in love with a prostitute and you see her boobies a lot. The movie ends with him being shot as he goes to meet his girlfriend, and he dies as soon as he gets to her. 

This linear plot would have been lacking for a short film. It leaves the viewer thinking, wait...what just happened? It only takes you a couple of minutes to realize that nothing happened. I hardly think that a few shots of a man eating in a restaurant, having sex with his girlfriend/prostitute and walking to his car can make an entire movie.

I would give this movie a 4.9 on the SMS, it's few points earned because of the frequent textbook examples of quality film making that you rarely see in movies anymore. In my opinion, Anton Corbijn made a great film but forgot the movie part of it. Yes there is a difference. 

This has been a movie review by Severin, the somewhat informed movie critic. Stay safe America, and keep watching movies.

Real Steel, directed by Shawn Levy

Greetings,
This is the 10 week anniversary of my movie blog! I have reviewed/analyzed 10 movies so far. If you haven't read all of my posts and would like to, go to the blog archive underneath my movie list on the side of your screen. Thanks for all of you who read!

This has also been the 10th week of computer programming. We just finished working in Scratch, which I must say I have mixed feelings about. Scratch was fun in a way because it was so easy, but I'm not really sure how practical it is. We also just started working in Jeroo, which I am new to so have no informed opinion on the matter.  So far I am enjoying the class and look forwards to what we do next.

About a week ago I went to the movies, which is somewhat of a treat for me because I don't get to go that often. I really enjoy the theater experience and wish I could go more often. Anyways, now that I am done with my horror theme, I decided to review the movie that I saw. This week's movie is:

Real Steel, directed by Shawn Levy

In all honesty, there really isn't that much to be said for this movie. Real Steel, while entertaining, was basically made to be a crowd pleaser and not much else. The plot was fairly linear, and told the classic story of an underdog boxer (who in this case is a robot named Atom) who fights his way up to the big leagues. Early on in the story, we also learn that the ex-boxer who trains Atom (Charlie) has a son who's mother recently died. Charlie agrees to take care of the boy for a short time until the boys Aunt and Uncle get back from vacation and take custody of him.

The boy finds an old sparring robot and becomes determined to teach it how to fight, confident that this old machine has the potential for greatness. From this point on it's fairly obvious what is going to happen.  The boy coerces his father into teaching the bot (Atom) some basic moves, and ultimately lands the bot a fight. As the fights grow in number, the father and son reluctantly bond as you expected from the start. Atom gathers a large crowd and eventually fights the champion bot, a massive robot name Zeus. This is one of the few parts of the movie that surprised me: Atom looses. After a solid hour and a half of hype building up to this one fight, Atom ties with Zeus in the match, neither dropping out. The win is then decided by Judges, who give Zeus slightly higher score. Even though they won, Charlie and his son treat it like a win. The crowd boos the Judges and Charlie, his son and Atom leave the arena like champions.

As I said before, although this film might be lacking in the cinematic point of view, to be fair that isn't really what it was designed for. Looking at it from the point of view of what it was trying to accomplish (entertain the audience) I thought it was fairly successful. The movie was captivating and has a comforting story line. Its familiar cast (Hugh Jackman and Evangeline Lilly) provided an above par performance and was generally a generic crowd pleaser.

One thing that I did enjoy about this movie was the modesty of the time venue. The film was supposedly based in the near future, and did so believably. The robot boxers, some slightly alien looking cars and futuristic cell phones were really the only alterations made to the world of the characters. I appreciated this lack of flare in contrast to many of the modern movies that go all out on special effects and what-not. I also found the idea of having robot boxers to be especially plausible because robots can give a better fight and literally tear each other to pieces, where humans cannot. Also, people already watch dog fights and chicken fights and things of that sort, so why not robots?

Overall I think I would give this movie a 6.9 on the SMS because it was entertaining, but just that. I think it was good, but far from perfect. I would recommend it to the average movie goer, but if you are offended by anything considered to be a "trash movie", then I would think twice before watching it. This has been a movie review by Severin: the somewhat informed movie critic. Stay safe America, and keep watching movies.

The Exorcist, directed by William Friedkin

Hey guys,
It's the last week of October, and you all know what that means. But before I get started talking about my favorite horror movie of all time, let me get some stuff out of the way. We've been messing around with Scratch in computer programming for the past couple of weeks. It's ok, I mean it's really easy and pretty straight forwards, but I don't really see where we're going with it so far. It seems like we're going to start wrapping it up pretty soon, so I look forwards to what we do next.

Anyways, this week's post will conclude the series of horror movies that I have been reviewing in celebration of the October season. Today I will talk about a movie that left one of the most memorable marks on the American people out of any movie. Do be warned, the material covered in this movie is fairly controversial, and if you are easily offended by religious references to the anti-christ, satanistic beings or explicitly violent depiction of little girls, please navigate away from this page. Without further ado, this week's movie is:

The Exorcist, directed by William Friedkin

The Exorcist was released in 1973, and contains some of the most visually disturbing images I have ever seen. Even by today's standards, this is over the top; I can't imagine what people would have thought in the 70's.

Naratively speaking, this movie doesn't do much. A young girl is possessed by some sort of demon, and after months of doctors visits her mother calls a priest to do an exorcism in order to expel the demon. Simple enough. But when you factor in the sheer amount of graphic chaos depicted in this film, I don't know if the viewer could have handled much more. I think that the simplicity of the plot was one of the few comforting aspects of this movie.

I've already referenced the extreme use of special effects several times. This is what really made this movie something special. That, and the sheer balls that Friedkin must have had to go as far as he did with this movie. As the little girl (Regan MacNeil) becomes progressively worse, her flesh begins to rot, and severe lacerations on her face become infected and her eyes yellow, giving her the appearance of a zombie more than a human being. The majority of the disturbing peices of this film revolve around Regan and her self mutilation while under the influence of what claims to be the Devil. In one scene, Regan is shown forcefully stabbing her self in her vagina with a metal crucifix, and then shoves her mothers face into her bleeding private area. One of the most famous scenes in the movie is when Regan's head turns completely around to speak to someone behind her. There is also a scene in an extended version of the film where Regan "crab-walks" backwards down her staircase and then vomits blood. These are the kind of extreme, over the top moments that make this movie truly unforgettable, no matter how hard one tries.

Another thing that really made this movie was how purely controversial it was. Many people were offended by this extreme interpretation of the Devil and how the movie dealt with God. The movie also included hints that the Catholic church, while rarely, participated in exorcisms even in the current day and age, and just kept it under wraps, as it could be seen as an embarrassment. This added to the edge of the film, making it even more adult.

But this was not just a crowd pleaser, The Exorcist was nominated for many many awards that year in both the Academy Awards and the Oscars, and was the only horror movie to ever receive Best Picture nomination until The Silence of the Lambs, in 1991 (see previous post). It is rare that a horror movie receive such praise, because I think that often directors forget about quality cinematography while trying to hard to please the audience, especially with horror movies. Part of the reason I believe horror movies get such a bad reputation for being terrible movies is because more times then not, the sole purpose of the movie is to scare the viewer, not to make the viewer think about things in a new way or to introduce the viewer to something new. I think that a truly good movie, while entertaining, should also contain a little more depth then just being scary.

The main theme that I picked up on in The Exorcist was the struggle between good and evil. In the opening sequence, the film shows and elderly priest at an archaeological dig in Iraq. The intense labor, extreme heat and dark red sun makes the dig seem like some sort of hellish expedition. The elderly priest named Father Merrin witnesses several bad omens himself; almost getting run over by a carriage, two dogs fighting, and a pendulum clock that suddenly stops mid-swing. This somewhat abstract beginning gives a sense of dark foreboding for the rest of the film.

A discovery at the dig produces a small stone figurine of some sort of monster, which, while never revealed in the movie, is a statue of the Babylonian god Pazuzu, the king of wind demons. Pazuzu's image is seen several times later in the film, one of which is in Regan's bedroom. Regan seems to revel in the presence of this demonic figure. Although the demon that possesses Regan claims to be the Devil, it is implied that it is actually Pazuzu that possesses her.

The fact that a girl as sweet and innocent as Regan is possessed by a demon in ironic and adds the the theme of good vs. evil. The struggle between the two forces is finally put to an end when Father Karras (another priest involved with the exorcism) demands to be possessed by the demon instead of Regan. When the demon leaps into Karras' body, he leaps out the bedroom window, killing himself and the demon within, showing that no one side can win in this eternal struggle.

After recently watching this movie, I am very impressed with it. Friedkin did an excellent job with this piece and it is now one of my favorite movies of all time. I would give The Exorcist a 9.5 on the SMS and would highly recommend it to any who are prepared to see it. This has been a movie review by Severin: the somewhat informed movie critic. Stay safe America, and keep watching movies.

The Silence of the Lambs, directed by Jonathan Demme

Good evening America,
Welcome to my blog. We now have 2 weeks until the end of October, which means that after this there is only 1 more blog post in my horror series this month. I have a very special movie saved for next week, so stay tuned. This weeks movie is:

The Silence of the Lambs, directed by Jonathan Demme

The Silence of the Lambs is a psychological horror movie released in 1991 and includes the eternally infamous Hannibal Lecter. Following FBI agent Clarice Starling , Silence tells the story of a young woman who is a student at a Bureau training facility. Showing promise, she is pulled from her training to consult the incarcerated serial killer and cannibal, Hannibal Lecter, with hopes that he can provided assistance in the investigation of another serial murderer nicknamed Buffalo Bill, who starves and skins his victims.

Silence won a significant amount of awards following its release, not just because 1991 was a relatively uneventful year, but because of the stunning performances put on by the cast. In my opinion this movie has some of the best performances of all time; namely the legendary show put on by Anthony Hopkins, who played Hannibal Lecter. Hopkins' acting was truly stunning. His chilling, cruel and almost fatherly figure makes to be one of the most rememberable quazi-villian of all time.

I say quazi-villian because although Hannibal is a true monster, he aids our protagonist in her investigation and ultimately leads to the capture and death of Buffalo Bill. In the relationship he builds with Clarice, he even begins to look out after her even when it doesn't directly benefit himself. In this way Hannibal becomes Clarice's guardian angle, which is extremely ironic with Hannibal being who he is.

This irony plays into a main theme of the movie: split personalities. Clarice is a female hero, a rarity in modern movies with a mood such as this. Even more so, she works in a male dominated environment, and constantly struggles to prove herself as macho as her male counterparts. On top of that, she is still trying to forget the painful memories of her childhood that she reveals to Hannibal. These things together give Clarice a kind of identity problem of her own: a female needing to be masculine, an adult trying to leave behind her childhood. This is one of the reasons I think that Clarice and Hannibal bond in the way that they do, is because they're both dealing with their inner demons, just in hugely different ways.

Then, of course, there's Buffalo Bill. His real name is Jame Gumb, he's a transvestite, and he kills people. He is obsessed with women, so much to the point that he has a vagina and kidnaps women, starves them for three days, and the skins them in order to make a suit of human skin. Basically your typical dude. His split personalities are hopefully self explanatory, and similar to Clarice, they are related to gender.

This movie is one of my all time favorites, and I happily give it a 9.5 on the SMS, for it deserves every point it can get. This is a great movie and, while creepy, is recommended to all. This has been a movie review by Severin, the semi-informed movie critic. Stay safe America, and keep watching movies.

Jaws, directed by Stephen Spielberg

Hello America, and welcome to the 2nd week of October. This weeks movie is one of the grand-daddy's of horror movies, and tormented hundreds of people after it's release. This week's movie is:

Jaws, directed by Stephen Spielberg

Jaws is one of the most infamous American horror movies of all time which follows sheriff Martin Brody as a giant great white shark terrorizes the waters of his coastline town. This quickly became a classic horror movie because of the mass panic it produced, for the films depiction of the shark scared people from open bodies of water for a long period of time after this movie was released.

One of the many things that made this movie so scary to most people was the presentation of the shark, or the lack there of. You rarely caught a glimpse of the shark for the majority of the film. Only until the do you see the entire shark, and even then, only for a moment. This aspect of the film inspired modern horror movie making as it is today, less is more. Originally when Spielberg was directing the film, he wanted to show as much of the shark as possible; but due to technical difficulties with the mechanical shark with which they were filming the movie, he wound up with less footage then desired. He then took it to his editor, Verna Fields, who used even less. When approached by Spielberg, Fields claimed that the less of the shark that you saw, the better. She wound up being spot on, for all the audience really wants to see is the shark, and saving it for the end keeps the watcher at bay and much more vulnerable.

This movie is most famous for its theme music. The "Jaws tune" is well known to every person in America, and was one of the key things that made this movie truly scary. The low pitch, tortuously slow theme gradually picks up pace as the shark approaches it's victim. Escalating into a fast pace the music suddenly stops as the shark attacks his victim. This tune quickly becomes a warning sign to the viewer about what is about to happen. The track almost sounds like a heart beat, the slow going at first, the acceleration as the suspense heightens and its sudden stop as the person is killed.

This film was also very influential to film making in itself. In the memorable scene "Blood on the Beach" (the beach attack scene where the young boy is killed) Spielberg employs the use of something called the "Truck Shot" or "Tracking Zoom" when showing Brody's reaction to witnessing the shark attack. This type of shot was invented by Alfred Hitchcock while filming Vertigo and is done by zooming in while pulling back (moving the camera backwards) at and equal speed, or the opposite (zooming out while dollying in) and results in distorting the background around a character while the character stays unaltered. Although Spielberg did not invent it, its inclusion in Jaws was one of the first modern uses of it since Vertigo, thus Jaws is often given credit for the invention of said shot.

Another aspect of this film that became a horror icon was the movie poster. This relatively simple poster has stayed in the minds of thousands of American's after seeing this movie and is one of the most easily recognized posters of modern film making. Besides the magnificent representation of the shark approaching the woman, this poster employs many more subtle Easter eggs that make this poster even more disturbing to your subconscious. Other than simply the massive scale of the shark, the word JAWS are just as disturbing.

First, the disturbing diagonal line seems to slash between the A and W. Diagonal lines are often used by directors to make something disturbing. Psychologists have confirmed that the human subconscious by nature, "wants" to straighten out the lines and make the horizontal. This was a tool frequently used by Alfred Hitchcock, namely in his infamous "Hitchcock Staircases," in which he would strongly emphasize diagonal shadows and such. Also, the negative space around the W almost looks like gnashing teeth, perhaps those of a Great White Shark. And finally, the end of the J is cut to resemble a fish hook, hinting at the plot of the movie.

Personally, I loved this movie. I thought it did a great job of capturing the viewers attention and really stuck in your mind even long after the movie was over. I would give Jaws a 9.3 on the SMS, and would highly recommend it to anyone who asks.

This has been a movie analysis by Severin: the somewhat informed movie critic. Stay safe America, and keep watching movies.

Psycho, directed by Alfred Hitchcock

Welcome welcome welcome to the first week of October! Because of the turning of fall and the anticipation of Halloween I have decided to do a month long blog-post theme: Horror Movies! Now personally I am not a huge fan of horror movies, but am aware of more than enough good ones to keep all of your movie needs satisfied. So, without further ado, this weeks movie is:

Psycho, directed by Alfred Hitchcock

I can honestly admit that I have truly bitten off more than I can chew for this one. Alfred Hitchcock is most likely the most famous director of all time and was undeniably great at what he did. Psycho was his master piece, and everything that he had been working for throughout his entire career was leading up to this one movie. People have literally written their dissertations of Psycho and I personally have known people that spent years studying this film. I, being only a highschooler and it being a Tuesday night, will only be able to talk about a tiny tiny tiny tiny fragment of what is going on behind the scenes of this film. To find a true professionals analysis of this movie I highly encourage all of you to simply Google "Psycho film analysis," because there is some truly phenomenal work out there. If you have not scene this movie then stop reading this right now and go watch this movie. And now I must analyze...here I go. 

*AGAIN: IF YOU HAVE NOT SEEN THIS MOVIE THEN TURN AWAY NOW*

Psycho, as previously stated, was Hitchcock's masterpiece. Filmed in 1960, Psycho was filmed in black and white, even though colored film had existed for quite some time  by that point. Part of the reason that it was filmed in black and white was because it was cheap. Hitchcock always preferred to film in black and white anyways, feeling that color film was unnecessary and that it took away from the film itself. He was attracted to the contrast that black and white could offer and enjoyed playing with the stark shadows and symbolism between light and dark that would be less apparent in colored films. He also felt that it would be far to gory if he filmed it in color, so reverted to black and white to spare the excess violence.

Psycho was actually based off of a novel by the same title written by Robert Bloch. The novel was also, in fact, based off of true events to a certain extent. In short, a man by the name of Ed Gein robbed graves and murdered people to serve his necrophilia and transvestite desires and also to decorate his house with the various body parts of his victims. He also made many clothing accessories out of human skin or other human features that he would wear around the house (I will talk about Silence of the Lambs later this month). Oh, and he also kept his mother's corpse hanging from the ceiling, the head was, of course, separated and hung on a wall. Even as watered down as Hitchcock made it, this story has haunted people for the past 50 years. 

The story outline of Psycho is much less gruesome, but gruesome still. The story revolves around Marion Crane, a young woman working as a real-estate secretary. Her and her boyfriend Sam are living in separate cities, only seeing each other on occasion but dreaming for a future together. 

Marion later steals $40,000 dollars (a lot of money in the 60's) from a client of her office. She leaves town, without contacting anyone, in hopes of reaching Sam's place which was a couple of days drive away from her town of residence (Phoenix, Arizona). She sleeps in her car on the side of the road that night, only to be waken by a police officer in the morning. She tries to shrug him away, but he follows her into town. Becoming frantic, Marion quickly buys a new car at a in town dealer in hopes of losing the cop. She continues her trip to Sam's, still unannounced. 

When night falls again, she this time stops at the Bates Motel, a motel on the outskirts of town run by a local boy named Norman Bates and his mother, only to be known as Mrs. Bates. After over hearing a seemingly viscous argument between Norman and his mother and eating dinner with Norman, Marion retires to her cabin to take a shower and get some rest. While in the shower, she is attacked without warning by Mrs.Bates, who stabs her to death with a butcher knife. Once he had realized what his mother had done, Norman ran to the bathroom, cleaned up the crime scene (very quickly, almost as if he had done it before...) and pushed Marion's car (that contained the $40,000) into the nearby swamp. 

The remainder of the film follows her boyfriend Sam as he quickly realizes she is missing, and Sam's investigation when the private eye hired to find Marion also disappears (he had been murdered by Mrs. Bates while investigating Marion's disappearance). After Mrs. Bates murdered the private eye, Norman has a fight with her, insisting that she hide down in the fruit cellar until the whole thing settles. She protests, but Norman overpowers her and is shown carrying her down stairs and putting her in the fruit cellar. 

Sam then goes with Marion's sister Lila, to the Bates Motel. While snooping around they find evidence of Marion's stay at the Motel, and begin to search Norman's house. Hearing Norman approaching, Lila panics and runs down to the fruit cellar to hide. She sees Mrs. Bates sitting in a chair, with their back to the camera, facing the corner of the room. She calls her name, but there is no response. Approaching the Mrs. Bates, Lila taps her on her shoulder, causing the figure to fall out of the chair, revealing that it was really Mrs. Bates' corpse lying preserved in the fruit cellar. Seconds later, Norman comes rushing into the room, screaming and holding a butcher knife, dressed like his mother and wearing a wig; revealing that he had been pretending to be Mrs. Bates the entire time while caring around her corpse, imagining that she was alive. Sam comes into the room at the last second, restraining Norman.

After Norman is taken into custody, a psychiatrist explains that Norman had developed an alternate identity, and would sometimes pretend to be his own mother, and would at times carry a conversation with himself. The film ends with a close up of Norman's smiling face, with the voice of Mrs. Bates in the background, and finally a shot of Marion's car being pulled out of the swamp.

One of the many things that makes Psycho especially great is the fluidity with which Hitchcock switches protagonists. I have yet to see a film in which the protagonist changes midway through the story to a completely different person. In the beginning of the movie, Marion is the protagonist. After she is murdered, however, Norman becomes the new protagonist and remains so for the rest of the film. After the infamous shower scene Norman rushes in to clean up the blood and body, and it is during this clean up scene that our loyalty switches to Norman; leaving us to hope that he won't get caught.

The sound track of Psycho is one of the most iconic and infamous of all time. Composed by Bernard Herrman, the score includes screeching violins that consistently match the pace of the film and has now become the classic horror movie sound. It is said that the screeching strings were meant to sound like screaming birds, which segues nicely into my next topic; birds.

Birds are a major motif in Psycho. They are literally everywhere, and become a symbol for Marion. The main character's name in Marion Crane and she is from Phoenix, Arizona, and while she eats with Norman he even tells her that she eats like a bird. In the same scene his office lounge is covered with dead birds and Norman mentions that he likes stuffing birds- possible hinting at what was about to happen in the shower scene only a couple minutes later. Pictures of birds are also shown inside of Marion's hotel room, and after she is murdered Norman runs in and knocks one off of the wall, subtly confirming her death.

One of the basic themes that Hitchcock includes regularly is that of transformation. In the opening scene, Marion is shown with her boyfriend Sam wearing white lingerie (very daring for the time), but later in the film after she stole the $40,000 she is shown wearing black underwear; illustrating her transformation from light to dark that she will pay the ultimate price for. Then, of course, there's Norman- who's transformation is more than that of clothes. His mind literally transforms into a different person to fill the void left by his dead mother. 

Again, I have only touched on the basic key points in Psycho, and later hope to do a more in depth analysis, but this is it for now. This movie has the highest rating out of any movie on the SMS with the exception of one. The rating of 9.8 is given only to Psycho and The Shawshank Redemption, and in my mind represents a near perfect movie. I would love to see a 10, but I'm not sure if that's humanly possible.

This has been a movie review by Severin: the somewhat informed movie critic. Stay safe America, and keep watching movies.