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Reviews
Apocalypse Now (1979)
This movie is a masterpiece
The lighting in Apocalypse is one of the most amazing things in the whole movie. The night scene when they're at the bridge moving through the trenches. All the flashes and explosions the lights strung across the bridge. Everything is made so real looking its amazing. Also the lighting with Marlon Brando the shadows covering most of his face. The movie is not only amazing because of the lighting though. The acting was incredible. The reporter was amazing it seemed as if he was actually crazy. Martin Sheen is also very good. Throughout Martin played his role of the experienced veteran perfectly, you can tell he's seen stuff that no person should see. The music in the movie was also awesome. The beginning credits were awesome with the helicopter noises and the music lining up is really cool. Also when the air cavalry raids the beach and they blast the Ride of The Valkyries is my favorite scene. The sound mixing was also really excellent. The costume design was also really good and all the soldiers wore the correct equipment. This movie is one of the best war movies of all time and it captures all the feelings of Vietnam perfectly.
Taxi Driver (1976)
Great movie but kinda disturbing
Martin Scorsese made a really good movie. The whole movie has a really amazing sound track. All sorts of background noises make it really seem like your in NYC. Robert De Niro was amazing in his role as this insomniac. Jodie foster plays a young girl and she is excellent in her performance. She plays a very important role in the movie but she only spends a couple minutes in it. When he says his inner thoughts in his head it gets pretty creepy. The whole movie is basically a spiral into darkness. The camera work is amazing. There are all sorts of weird camera techniques like the top down view after he fights the gangsters. Top down isn't a normal view and it makes you think he died like if he was having a out of body experience. There is also extensive use of mirrors to show De Niro's eyes while he's in the cab and in other places too. The music track is also really good. The saxophone is used very often but sometimes there is darker music alluding to possible darker things happening. The movie finishes on the brighter side with him turning out as a hero instead of an assassin. The movie is very good but it can be very disturbing.
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)
It is a great Western
Butch and Sundance played by Paul Newman and Robert Redford. The two actors really make the movie as good as it is. They are excellent in their acting and they bring fun to the west. Throughout the movie they poke jokes at each other and really characterize themselves by the end. I really liked the beginning when they were playing the old silent movie then transitioned to the new movie but it was still colorless. Then it moved to color in the rising sun. The beginning is also almost solely filled with close ups. In the middle of the film they sum up the move to Bolivia with a montage of recreated old pictures with all of them edited into the pictures. I found it a good way to change the location. Also the entire movie looks as if it is filmed on location in the wild. This means George Roy Hill the director had to deal with natural light and he made it work very well along with including excellent landscape shots. The costumes were excellent and the pyrotechnics added to the film. The movie is a very good western.
The Bad Seed (1956)
It is a good horror film
This is one of the creepiest old movies I have ever seen. The girl Played by Patty McCormack is excellent. She is excellent in being very creepy and innocent at the same time. The song that the little girl plays seems innocent at first then gradually becomes more sinister as the movie goes on. The other music in the film is well placed and stirs your nerves the way its supposed to. The acting of the janitor Leroy is just a creepy as the girl. He acts dumb around the others but when he's with the girl he's almost normal. The drowned boys mother plays a good drunk the first time but the second she's outlandish and it makes her seem fake. The mother of the girl is a very good actress and she is believable the entire time. The camera-work is very good. I liked that it never showed anyone dying except for the little girl in the end. The costume design of the girl and her pigtails are always kept perfect. The movie is great but it's a very creepy movie because it deals with child murderers.
To Catch a Thief (1955)
A very Good Movie from Hitchcock
Hitchcock directed this movie but its not like his other movies. It avoids his niche of suspense movies and he uses his art to create a less horrific film. The movie is very funny with Cary Grant making jokes and doing funny things. Hitchcock uses his technique of music to really make you feel what's going on. The music builds suspense and he uses it to make you feel the way he wants you to. The cast of Cary Grant and Grace Kelly are very good choices for the roles they play. Grace a young American girl and Cary a cool headed ex thief. The costume design matches the period and the location. The ball scene is completely ridiculous though. The costumes in this scene are outlandish. Hitchcock used an interesting technique for night shots by turning everything green. Not sure if it was a limitation of the equipment or if it was a technique he chose purposely to do. Either way the lighting in the rest of the movie is excellent. The movie is almost like a James bond movie because it has car chases and some fighting interspersed. The movie is one of Hitchcock's lesser known masterpieces.
Don't Bother to Knock (1952)
It was an alright movie
Having never seen a Marilyn Monroe film I was expecting a little more. The actor Richard Widmark reminds me a lot of John Wayne. He plays a very serious character in this movie. I found the plot to be weird. The guy meets a woman he sees in a room across the way. Then he goes across to meet her and she falls in love with him. It just seems a little too made up. Marilyn Monroe plays a very mentally fragile woman. But she does it very well. She's very good at playing this crazy damsel. The Lighting in this movie makes Marilyn Monroe look perfect in every scene. It is also used very well when Marilyn is threatening the girl. Everything is dark which relates to her sinister threats. The camera work is also good. The movie is filled with close up's of all the conversations. One shot in the movie that is very good is when Marilyn rides down the elevator and the door pens but the cage is still there making it look like she's in jail. I didn't particularly like this movie because the plot was just too weird for me.
The Stranger (1946)
Yet another excellent Welles Movie
Orson Welles master in his art of movie making made this movie using many of his techniques from Citizen Kane. The entire movie is filled with the use of shadows. It makes everything very dark and hidden much like the character Orson himself plays. Orson Welles also uses mirrors extensively allowing us to see two peoples reactions at the same time. Its one of those odd techniques that Orson excels and it seems he likes using them. Orson also uses clock as a motif throughout the entire movie because Franz Kindler has an obsession with clocks. The use of music really drives the scenes. It affects your feelings more than you even realize. What happens throughout makes you wonder why he would do the things he does. He murders his old friend, his dog, attempts to murder his wife. However when you realize he was a Nazi you can understand that he is nuts and nothing he does is rational. Edward G. Robinson as the detective was an excellent choice. Orson seems to attempt to explain the rationale of the Nazis and he shows how their views eventually collapse. Orson Welles made another very complicated and well written film but it wasn't as big a hit as Citizen Kane was.
Laura (1944)
Laura is a very good Film Noir
This is a great Film Noir. The entire movie you are kept guessing at what will happen next. The plot is very well written and it has multiple turns which I like very much. One scene that is interesting is when the detective falls asleep and Laura walks in and you can't tell if he's still in a dream or not. Dana Andrews was an excellent choice as the detective Mark McPherson. He plays the nonchalant, cool headed detective very well. Gene Tierney who plays Laura is extremely beautiful in this movie and that is helped by the excellent lighting. Every actor is very well lit by the low key lighting, making the actors faces very bright but leaving everywhere else only moderately lit. The maid had over exaggerated emotions which almost leads you to believe that she killed Laura because she's so crazy. Most of the movie is filmed with mid-shots and the close ups were mostly saved for Laura making her very different from the other characters. The movie is very good and I would recommend it to anyone who likes a good murder mystery.
Dracula (1931)
Dracula (1931) is an excellent horror film that avoids the usual gore of our current horror films.
Dracula (1931) is a very good movie. It uses many gloomy and dark scenes to set the tone for the whole movie. For example in the beginning Dracula's castle in completely dark and is in shambles. There's smoke everywhere and everything is dark. One scene I particularly like is when the travel agent passes out in the doorway and Dracula emerges from the smoke on the other side of the doorway and shoos away the three lady vampires. Then proceeds to drink his blood and turn him into a minion vampire. I find it funny when Dracula uses his hypnotizing vision. They do a close up and highlight his eyes while he stares into the camera. They use a lot of parallel editing throughout the movie to show where Dracula is in relation to what murder he has committed. Also we get some insight on Dracula's life, he says that there are worse things than death. This is his passive way of saying he doesn't like what he has to do in order to survive. The acting of Bela Lugosi as the count gives us all the creeps. The way he talks and the way he acts all adds to the horror that the film is about. The movie is a very creepy movie and it avoids all the gore that we usually have in our horror nowadays.
Young Mr. Lincoln (1939)
Young Mr. Lincoln (1939) is an excellent movie.
Young Mr. Lincoln is an excellent movie. Without knowing much about Lincolns early life other than he was Honest Abe, you can still enjoy this movie. The movie is a fictional case based loosely off his early law days before he became president. Henry Fonda did an excellent job playing Lincoln. His costume helped show how tall he was because often when he sits you can see his shins because his pants are too short. The movie does a good job hinting of the brewing trouble on the 4th of July. The Clay brothers end up fighting a sheriff of the town because he has been bothering them all day. During the fight he is killed. Which is where our main conflict begins. When Lincoln is defending the brothers there are no hints as to what Lincoln has in store for the court case. Also during the court case Lincoln is continually cracking jokes which is funny but doesn't seem very much like the Lincoln we know from our history books. The movie also shows Lincoln's ability to control crowds which was one of Lincolns traits. The movie showed a fictional story that may or may not have happened in Lincolns life. However the movie is a believable situation that Lincoln could have participated in. Young Mr. Lincoln is an excellent movie that tells you about the life of one of our most famous presidents.
His Girl Friday (1940)
His Girl Friday(1940) is an excellent comedy
His Girl Friday is very fast paced. You may even need to play it in slow motion to be able to fully comprehend the lines that are spoken. The actors really must have worked hard in order to talk that fast. Hildy Johnson was married to Walter Burns but their marriage burned out as quick as they talked. The fast paced talking and changing story convinces us that this movie is about journalists. One of its messages is that the media has a great effect on the government good or bad. This is shown when there is a manhunt for a fugitive who is supposed to be hanged the next day. He escaped and somehow the journalists heard he was in a house across town where he used to live. The police used the rifle squad to try and take him down but in reality he hadn't even left the block. The escape is a panic manufactured by the media. And the media portrayed him as a homicidal maniac. Also this man was obviously mentally unstable but due to politics they had to make an example of him. The movie is hilarious throughout keeping it moving as fast as possible. His Girl Friday is a very good fast paced comedy movie that never stops its flow.
City Streets (1931)
City Streets(1931) is an excellent Gangster film.
City Streets(1931)is not your typical gangster film. One example is Mamoulian never showed anyone being killed. When Nans father kills his buddy they purposely focus on Nan and you hear the gunshot. throughout the movie they always avoid any killings. The Kid, Nans lover is a shooting gallery showman and he doesn't want anything to do with the mob. however when Nan takes the blame for what her father did and is sent to jail. The Kid decides he needs to join the mob in order to support Nan while she's in jail. We realize that the mob is not all that its cracked up to be. Sure you can make a lot of money but your at risk of death anytime the boss changes his mind. Also the mob is filled with immediate pleasure and then you are tossed off to the side. The acting in the film was excellent. All the actors were well chosen for their roles. However Big fellow had a weird almost Spanish accent it just doesn't make any sense. It is a very different approach to gangster films because it doesn't end in a massive gunfight. City Streets is an excellent film that manages to keep it G rated while still being a gangster film.
Wings (1927)
The film was good overall
I found Wings to be a very good movie. Its flying scenes brought me into the battle in the skies and surprised me with how they actually managed to film it. Much of the flying used real planes and it's surprising that they could film from the planes without destroying the cameras or the quality of the film with the vibrations. The acting in the film was great, it had to be since no one actually talked. The title cards weren't overused and were only used when they needed to be. The Actors did an excellent job with their conversations and you could tell what they were saying to each other even though there was no talking. The bubbles scene was ridiculous they were obviously fake, this scene was the worst and the acting during it was terrible. However all the other scenes were great. For me, 2 and a half hours for a silent movie was a long time, but it was still a good movie and I would recommend it to anyone looking for a good war and love story.