Twilight drops her curtain down, and pins it with a star. ~Lucy Maud Montgomery

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close: Review


Over the last 10 years, whether or not a film about one of the darkest days in American history has been up for much debate. The debate has been if it’s too soon to have a film made, but to be honest, flight 93 in 2006 was greatly considered to be too soon. Even though, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close was just a novel in 2005, it was criticized for being too soon for being released in 2005. As most novels seem to have this happen to them, the novel was turned into a film, and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close went through that same debate is it still too soon? However, if a movie is to be made regardless of what is mention, or where it centers, Hollywood is going to make the film.
            Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close has the advantage of a decade-long perspective on the events of that day, and it brings back in a rush of all the pain and sorrow. It transports you 10 years back in your life when the world literally stopped, and everyone was focused on their TV watching the horrific events unfold live in front of them. The film follows a highly intelligent 11-year-old New Yorker, Oskar Schell (Thomas Horn), whose father Thomas (Tom Hanks), a jeweler who was visiting one of the Twin Towers on 9/11, is killed during the attack. Oskar and his father had a wonderfully close relationship. His bond with his mother (Sandra Bullock) however, is more distant.
            In order to make some kind of sense out of the events of 9/11, Oskar who narrates the movie, sets himself an impossible mission. Discovering a key in an envelope marked “Black” in his father’s closet, he decides to find the lock it opens by tracking down all 472 people named Black listed in all the boroughs of New York. While Most of the time his encounters are brief and dismissive. In a few instances, such as the one involving a woman named Abby (Viola Davis), he finds himself innocently walking in on a domestic crisis. After a while Oskar acquires an ally in his quest, an old man, known only as “the renter” and played by Max von Sydow, who lives down the hall from Oskar’s grandmother (Zoe Caldwell). This dignified and mysterious gent is mute by choice and everything he says is written down on a notepad. It is Oskar’s strong suspicion that the old man is actually his long-lost grandfather.
            Oskar’s precociousness and obsessiveness is linked to a possible diagnosis of Asperger’s. (“Tests were inconclusive,” he dryly comments in voice-over.) He’s a wearying kid, and Horn – who is himself a prodigy and a champ on the junior edition of “Jeopardy” can be a wearying actor. (It’s his first movie.) He never lets up. No doubt this has a lot to do with the way Stephen Daldry directed him. Still, the film’s title could just as easily apply to Oskar as to 9/11. Hanks and Bullock are wonderful, though their screen time is very brief. But the central dynamic of the film, Oskar’s search for meaning in his father’s death – is obscured by the boy’s frantic odyssey, which quickly takes on a life of its own untethered to 9/11. It is only near the end, when Thomas’s increasingly panicky phone messages from that day are played out, that the film hits home. Grade: A- (Rated PG-13 for emotional thematic material, some disturbing images, and language.)

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Posters For Modern Movies Re-Imagined With Classic Casts





These posters are awesome in so many ways. I can only imagine how completely different these movies would be if these classic actors/actresses really played in these films

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

What’s Your Favorite 90’s Movie? Here are my Top Five

When I was on twitter earlier, I had noticed a term “Favorite 90s Movie” was trending topic. I thought I would take the opportunity to talk about some of my most favorite movies of the 90s, so I took part in the trend and had tweeted my top 5 favorite films of the 90’s. I was surprised at the response, as I began seeing my picks retweeted and replies from followers saying that… that was their favorite films as well. So here are my favorite top 10 films with the reasons why I love them.
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        1)          The 1994 animated Disney hit The Lion King. This is a very personal favorite of mine, the storyline is meaningful and purposeful, but it also comes with the musical geniuses of Sir Elton John, Tim Rice and Hans Zimmerman composing one of the best movie soundtracks of the 90s. The music of the movie enhances the structure of the film to a higher level mesmerizing its audience so that they look deeper into the heart of the story being told. Equally important, is the character animators whose use of studying real-life animals for reference to bring real-life quality to the film. Jim Fowler, a renowned wildlife expert, had visited the studios on several occasions with an assortment of lions and other savannah inhabitants to discuss their behavior and help the animators give their drawings an authentic feel. Furthermore, several of the lead crew members, and production designer Chris Sanders, had taken a trip to Hell's Gate National Park in Kenya to study and gain an appreciation of the environment for the film. Doing so brought the dimension of realism to the story’s foundation.
2)      Another film released in 1994 that is a favorite is Dumb and Dumber. This movie holds such an epic comedy line. “How do they know I got gas?”They gotta be pros.” The movie shows a unique bond of friendship between the two main people, a bond that is rarely seen anywhere. Some people say that you have to have a certain sense of humor to appreciate this grossed out comedy. However, regardless of what people think of the vulgar sense of humor that makes up the film, it’s that precise humor film that is so underappreciated by some. It is the overdose of slapstick comedy that is much appreciated in this film. The technique of slapstick comedy dates all the way back to the renaissance. However, it was not until the “golden era" of black and white, that the style was explored extensively. It was popular in silent movies directed by figures like Mack Sennett and Hal Roach featuring such notables like Charlie Chaplin, Laurel and Hardy, the Marx Brothers, the Keystone Kops, the Three Stooges and El Chavo. Dumber and Dumber brings the modernization of the technique without evolving it.
3)      Forrest Gump, okay so obviously this one HAD to be on the list. I remember when I was in high school; I had a substitute teacher one day in my 20th Century American History class. When class started, she informed us that she would be subbing for the next three days. In those three days we would be watching a film…Forrest Gump. However, she told us that while watching the film, we had to write down all the historical references that were shown in the film. This assignment actually made me appreciate this film even more for the culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant gem it really is. We’re embarking on a journey through history in the form of a single narrative point of view, which allowed the audience to feel as if they were experiencing the significance of the past along with the story teller.
4)      Drop Dead Fred okay honestly who forgot about this movie? Based on random people I spoken with majority of people have. Drop Dead Fred, while being publicized as a light-hearted children's film, there are quite a few notable adult themes and gags with bizarre visual and make up effects, gross out humor, as well as some profanity. The movie explores the story of emotional abuse, and mental illness, and focuses on the main character that seems to have been unable to grow up because of the fear she has towards her mother. The plot depicts the abnormal upbringing of a young girl; she created an imaginary friend to help her cope with her mother’s stern and controlling behavior.  
5)      Titanic this movie is my list, not because of the chick flick storyline of forbidden love. But the historical references in the. We all know the story, so I’m not going into that. What amazes me most about this film is how eerily close the characters look to the actual passengers on the ship. James Cameron really went back in time with the film, and it was in this film where we saw new never before seen footage of the actual wreck of titanic.