MYST 2 Q2 Dark Knight Rises

MYST 2 Q2

Chris Chenery

Film Studies

Batman The Dark Knight Rises- What can I say about this film, it really was fantastic. You have Christopher Nolan and his genious on the screen for the whole movie and it basically leaves you jaws open for about three quarters of the film. While this film was praised by both viewers and critics I still found a couple of upsetting scenes or aspects that still puts the Dark Knight ahead in my books.

            What I liked about the movie: Bane, played by Tom Hardy is outstanding, along with the rest of the acting in this film. Banes voice while rather absurd is very intriguing. The acting was good enough to where you want to try and get into these characters such as bane, Catwoman and the rather differently portrayed Batman and figure them out. I think that when you get into a character in a film then the acting was just right. Many interesting shots were shown in this film such as when the bridges were being blown up and the scene of the football stadium sinking before banes watch. You get a lot of panning out wide variety scenes that are very interesting, you almost wish the shot was up longer because of how much is being shown. One thing I find that Nolan and his Cinematographer Wally Pfister did great was painting a picture in each scene as well as flow and ease of the rather complicated story. You feel like your watching a piece of art when you watch the Batman Trilogy and especially three times in a row its hard to create a masterpiece.

            One criticism I had with this film was the ending and how it came up to happening. Basically, Batmans flying plane did not have auto pilot in the beginning of the film (it was made very obvious) and it was kind of a much too planned ending to such a complicated film. At the end Fox tells him his autopilot is fixed and Batman uses the autopilot at the end to fly the bomb away from the city. That is much too cliché for this piece of art. Also, I would have loved for Robin to have come into play much more smoothly and not as obviously. I am very excited that we will get to see Robin in action soon but it was just a bit juvenile to introduce him so clearly. And lastly, I would have loved to have seen Bruce and Selena (Batwoman) not see fox in Paris at the end and leave it a mystery. While he probably thought that over because of the way he did that ending in Inception, I believe it would have been classier. Overall I would give this film a 93/100 , see ittt 

Formal Film Study

Formal Film Study

            For my formal film study I chose to do British gangster films as my topic. For this topic I chose three greats, Lock Stock by Guy Ritchie, Layer Cake by Mathhew Vaughn and Snatch by Guy Ritchie as well. I chose these films because I feel as though they represent the British gangster genre very well. Guy Ritchie known for his subtle comedy and riveting action was actually very similar to Mathhew Vaughan and I think that’s where the classic theme of a British Gangster comes into play.

             American gangster films are known for of course for violence, important and distinguished rules, a hierarchy and some sort of family and british gangster films are no exception to this tradition. However British gangsters have a bit different of a feeling when watching them in comparison to the godfather, goodfellas etc.

            Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, a Guy Ritchie film was absolutely outstanding. You have pot dealers, guns, massive british men and a lot of money involved. The plot follows three guys who just get involved with the wrong men, they end up owing big bucks to a very impatient man and the film follows them for the next week. One thing I liked about this film was the cinematography, its got almost a yellow tint to the whole film which gives it a somewhat of a vintage feel. Also one thing that stuck out was the directors film style. The camera swings a lot, there’s a lot of close ups, a lot of emotion and I feel as though the camera angles used are very personal and very realistic. Overall, Lock Stock is a must see.

            Snatch is a great film as well. It was actually Guy Ritchies follow up to Lock Stock which is rather surprising with the feel of the film. This film deals with all the same as Lock Stock, the guns, the money, the violence, but this film works around a diamond, not a load of cash. It follows a group of guys who again get mixed with the wrong crowd. The aspect of this film I most enjoyed was the humor, the cast , and the cinematography. You get a certain amount of humor in Guy Ritchie films that really fits in with this whole gangster scene very well. The cast is phenomenal, Brad Pitt, Del Toro and Jason Statham really make this a fun movie to watch. Overall, this film is worth your time.

            And lastly is Layer Cake. This film breaks away from that classic british style just a tad, however that may be just that I have become accustomed to the Guy Ritchie style. It follows Daniel Craig (who by the way is amazing). This film I find to be a little more Americanized mostly due to the film and directing style. Its more steady, consistent and precise, it doesn’t have that gritty, biting the tongue feeling that I find very enjoyable in a British film. Overall, this film showed great film style for what was put on the screen, maybe not very traditional, but definitely a film to see on a Sunday night.

            What I found to be common between British gangster films was pretty cool and definitely unique to the brits. You have a very gritty, nonchalant feel the whole movie. You get the quiet awkward moments, the rough accents, the excitement of bare knuckle fighting more so than gun fights, and a very masculine feel. Theres no hiding in British gangster films, they are go getters and they like to hit you with everything they got, some humor, some punching and a hell of a lot of F bombs. If you’ve only seen American or Italian gangster films you really need to check out British ones. Actors like Jason Statham and Marcel Iures keep the action, the cuss words and the style flowing. 

Group Projct: Create A Movie CRASH

The movie that my group created is called Crash starring John Travolta as Nick Redkin, Pam Grier as Janice Templeton and Robert De Niro as Ted Gretch. We had Steven Spielberg as our director and Universal Studios as our studio being that Spielberg had already worked a lot with them.

            Crash is about a racecar driver (Travolta) who is the best racecar driver in the world. He’s got the fame, he’s got the girls, and he’s got all the money in the world. The problem is that he just is a bit of a jerk, he has no morals, no respect and it is really hurting his could be prosperous life. Redkin gets in a severe crash and he is carried off in a stretcher. When he awakes in the hospital a beautiful Pam Grier is his nurse. He instantly falls for her and throughout the film gets to know just who she is. When released from the hospital he notices faint scratches, inconsistencies in his world, but he simply blames it on his head injury. Whilst falling in love with Grier, Robert Deniro as Ted Gretch comes into the picture. Deniro plays Redkins best friend who is teaching Nick how to get rid of his anger, and his judgment. Deniro plays almost a guardian angel in this film and helps him be the person that his love Janice really wants to be with. The day before the couple’s marriage Nick passes out and wakes up in heaven where he realizes he was dead after the crash, he never even made it to the hospital. Deniro redeems himself as a guardian angel and gives Nick a second shot on earth with his newfound morals and strengths. When he awakes in the same hospital bed with the same nurse he reaches for her and kisses her. Deniro gives a wink in the background and fades away. The end shows a ring being put on a finger at a wedding.

            We went with R rating for this because there is going to be blood, there is going to be violence and language, and there is going to be nudity. Our focus was cinematography and for that we chose Robert Surtees. We thought he would be a good fit because he filmed the movie The Sting and the sting and Crash have similar surprise endings so we needed someone who knew how to work the camera, and give a great surprise ending like he knows how to do so well.

            These actors were carefully picked as well. Travolta was young, handsome and cocky, perfect for the role. He had been mostly a TV actor before this so this was his big break. Grier was black, beautiful and a talented actress. She had been in several films before this such as Foxy Brown, and Black Mama, White Mama. We chose Robert De Niro because he is a very experienced actor up until this point having being in The Godfather II, Bloody Mama, and Hi Mom! If I were doing this movie as a solo project I would have made it a little more masculine, thrown in some fight scenes, some more blood and maybe a little more gruesome of a struggle for their love.

MYST

Marley

            This documentary is astounding. It follows the life of the great Bob Marley. What i loved about this film was the integration of live clips, interviews and actual film so smoothly. The editing was really a strong point of this film. You have obviously a great story to work with and they did everything they could with it. Marley changed the world with his music and this film will keep his legacy alive.

            The live performances in the film were my favorite part. To see Marleys emotions not through an actor is really amazing, the way he sings and dances and speaks can not be replicated by an actor. The film starts with Marley as a child in his homeland of Jamaica, Trenchtown. It was extremely poor, extremely beautiful and Marley was one of a kind. He wasnt liked and he was very different than many of the other children there. He always had great words to be spoken says his grandmother, and he always had a passion for his music.

            I feel as though Kevin Macdonald (director) did most astonishingly with his style. I have never really seen anything like this film for many reasons. He so smoothly integrated Marleys voice just speaking, into live concerts into his relatives and children speaking of him. The best part was having the stories told by the people who actually spent the most time with him. Hearing stories from his daughters and sons, his band mates and his best friends gave you a very realistic idea of Marleys life, the man who changed music. I give this 4.5 out of 5 stars, absolutely fascinating and captivating, you need to see this.

1935 Trading Bases

1935 Trading Bases

            Our film tells the story of a newly engaged couple. They are ecstatic about their plans to be together for the rest of their lives but the next day the husband and main character played by Tyrone Power gets his draft papers for WW1. Devastated, the couple has to postpone their wedding but after time in the war he cant stand being apart from his wife anymore. He fakes his death in order to return home and see his wife, Janet Gaynor. The twist Is that Gaynors character is also love struck and in an attempt to go see her fiancée she fakes being a boy to go see Tyrone. The movie tells the tale of their struggle to find each others love once again in the midst of a great war. We thought this war film would be appropriate because we would show very mild battles with mild blood and mild sexual scenes. Our main aspect of the movie is the couples struggle to find each other love. 

            We chose 20^th Century Fox for our label because they have a lot of money to put out and a wide selection of contract actors that fit our selection well. Also, other labels have come out with war films but this would be 20ths first. 20^th was the perfect choice to make a large scale blockbuster that we were looking for. We chose Tyrone Power as our main actor mainly because of his age and classy style. He was in his early twenties when the movie came out which is essentially the age in which you would get drafted, also a contracted Fox actor, he was an easy choice. Janet Gaynor was our choice for the main actress because of her age, her look and her great contract with 20^th Century Fox. Lastly, as our main supporting actor we have Raymond Griffith, an elder man who plays the squad colonel or leader. He was a defined, hardened looking man perfect for the role. We chose John Ford for director because of his future success in War Films. His contract with 20^th Century made him an obvious choice. Our cinematographer, James Howe, was hard to choose. He specialized in deep focus shots which are vital for battlefield scenes. He could capture a detailed focus with outstanding camera angles and entertain with his camera smarts. If we could do this project again I definitely would have done two things different: 1. I would have spent time in class more wisely, we spent a lot of time chatting and putting off certain tasks which really did not help our ease of work on the last day. Secondly I would have made a definitive ending to our plotline so that I wasn’t guessing what to say about the ending to the class.

MYST 3 7 Psychopaths

MYST 3

Seven Psychopaths

            This film is very interesting. While you want to love it because of the great casting of Walken and Harrelson, you get to the end of the movie and you realize, that was a waste of 110 minutes. If I had to give this movie a ranking I would give it a 55/100 and the only reason it is that high is because of two things. One scene with Sam Rockwell on Peyote and the other being just overall a love of Christopher Walken and his awesome voice.

            Basically the movie follows a man (Colin Farrel) who is writing a script for a movie of a bunch of psychopaths, hence the name. It then goes on to tell the story of each of the characters that he writes for his script, several of them being main characters in the film. The other main aspect of the movie is that Farrels best friend is a dog thief who stole one of the psychopaths in Farrels scripts Shih Tzu, and lets say the owner is not happy. Let me just say, why should we care about a film that revolves around a crazy man that lost his dog? The film jumps into a world of different scenarios and what director Martin McDonagh sought to be exciting events that for me did absolutely nothing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OOsd5d8IVoA

 

            One thing McDonagh did great though was setting, casting and just the overall feel of the film style. The camera was smooth, made you feel like it was a high budget, hard worked on film with some great actors and great plot setting. If you like to watch a film just for overall satisfaction and don’t really care if you get much from it in the end, then this film may actually suit your fancy. But for me I like a twist, a captivating entity in a film and for me this film just did not deliver that. 

MYST 3 Lords of Dogtown

Chris Chenery

MYST #2

Lords of Dogtown

            This is a great film, if I had to rank it I would give it a 82/100. The film takes the story of the oldschool Zephyr Skate Team that basically revolutionized the skateboarding world. It started in the late 60’s, early 70’s and it follows the tale of a bunch of surf bums who start to shred the concrete waves when the surf is dry. Emile Hirsch and Heath Ledger star in this film and they are nothing beneath perfection in their roles.

           

The main aspect of this film that I enjoyed was the storyline and the casting selection especially of Emile and Ledger. Kalver got to the point perfectly of the story of the Z Boys and each individuals rise to fame. You see Ledger, the boys initial manager that got them started in the skate industry fall into a downward slope of anger and drinking. You se Hirsches character Jay Adams turn from the fun loving punk to the hardcore thug that he currently is. The plotline is super believable and in my opinion captures the story of the skaters very realistically to what I have read on them as well.

http://www.youtube.com/

The filming was overall done very well. One thing however that I was not a fan of was the ending. It was just a bit abrupt. You have all the boys reunited skating and then it cuts  the scene and rolls the credits. It was just a bit disappointing because the whole film you have a great warm intensely exciting feeling with the rush of the skating and surfing and partying. But then you have the movie almost spiral downhill for the last twenty minutes leaving you with an okay feeling about the movie instead of the great prior feeling you have during the first 7/8s.